November 6

Well, I'm back. Welcome belatedly to November and to the post election. Most of the commentators I saw and read reminded everyone that the polls were all within a "margin of error" which meant that Harris and Trump were essentially tied. Now the postmortem dissections begin. I find most of the so-called experts are giving explanations which don't really explain anything. I will be honest and admit that we didn't vote. We started out to vote but the line stretched halfway across the a six aisle parking lot. The last time we saw such a line was 2020 during the pandemic when we stood in line for almost two and a half hours. This time neither of us could physically stand that long. We drove by twice more but the line stayed as long. If I were wearing a hat I would tip it to the college students the news correspondents interviewed standing in such a line. Next election we will get mail in ballots.

I saw something interesting in the coverage and had to check my memory which I found was pretty accurate. I thought I remembered the vote tallies for Trump and Biden in the last election as 74+million for Trump and 83+million for Biden. The figures I saw for Trump this time was about 71+million and 66+million for Harris. I checked a couple of different sites and they all came in with about the same figures. That means that Trump lost between 2 and 3 million votes while Harris lost around 17million. Question: where did about 20 million voters go? Jill Stein and RFK, Jr. together only pulled in about 1.1 million votes. That was a harder datum to find.

Stray thought: the results of the election reveal, to me at least, a serious disconnect between the so-called political leaders and the people they try to convince to vote for them. While Trump talked down the economy insisting it was so much better for ordinary Americans when he was President, and Harris and her surrogates insisted that the economy was humming along very well if only all the critics would simply look at the statistics, the voters looked at things from their own experience and drew different conclusions. From my level neither described my experience. For all Trump's touting his economy it was never all that great for me and his tax cuts never touched my life. I have been criticizing the statistics for a long time because they usually paint over what happens to me every time I go to the store or pay a bill. Although the inflation rate is (supposedly) down what I pay keeps going up and I don't give a damn what the technical economist definition of inflation is because it doesn't touch me where I live. The unemployment rate is supposed to be declining to an acceptably low number but I still see numerous commercial establishments with "help wanted" signs. Where are the workers looking for work? How many discouraged, longterm, or detached workers aren't even counted any more? Take a look at Shadowstats to get an idea of what the published stats are covering up.

I saw a number of commentators trying to smooth out what Trump, and surrogates like Elon Musk, have promised for our future. I tend to follow Maya Angelou's advice: when someone tells you what he is, believe him the first time. Dave Karpf evidently follows that same advice.

Stray thought: anybody else notice a very self-satisfied, sanctimonious Elon Musk telling an audience that when Trump's economic plan (perhaps administered by Musk himself) we will experience a lot of pain but eventually we will experience a far more prosperous economy. That is the same promise Argentina's president offered and which people are now very upset with. It is similar to what the EU, ECB, etc., foisted on Greece as the price for loans (an increase in their debt) to help them with a debt crisis. Or that Macron proposed to French workers which raised the retirement age. That didn't go over well either.

Infidel753 posted this today and I totally agree. I turned off the commentary on the election early because it was largely a litany of complaints that the Trump aligned voters are racist, sexist, selfish, and other adjectives. The commentators didn't really try to understand their opponents especially since Democratic down ballot candidates (male and female, white and ethnic) won while the top of the ticket (Harris) lost.

October 22, 23

 Heather Cox Richardson posted a good article today. I have listened to too many of Trump's sycophants this last week dismissing Trump's remarks. Whether the were challenged with his  lewd remarks about Arnold Palmer, or his promise to go after the "enemies within," or promising to "deport" tens of millions of immigrants, or (insert any other examples you remember). They insist he didn't really say what the tape shows him saying. They insist that he didn't really mean what the tape shows him saying. They insist that the Constitution and Federal law will prevent him from doing any of the heinous things his critics say his words foretell. Well, Richardson recounts exactly how Hitler did all of that and more within the year he took the oath to respect the German Constitution. I also read the Bitecofer article Richardson cites in her piece. They are both illuminating.

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I am going to take a break from the blog until after the election. See you after.

October 18

 Good sunny but cool morning to you all. I got out on the patio and continued the process of putting the gardens to bed for the winter. I cleared out spent plants from three buckets and finished clearing out the stalks of sunflowers. I cut down the plants a couple of weeks ago. I started taking down trellises but too many still flowering plants are vining up the remaining support. I tried to detach the hose but, like last year, I couldn't move the connecting piece. I will have to call our landlord and ask if one of the handymen can swing by for a couple of minutes between other calls. We gave all of the wrenches that were of a sufficient size to my brother and nephew. They have more use for that kind of thing.

The news announced that the Israelis killed Yahya Sinwar the "mastermind" of the October 7 assault last year. Everyone hopes that will induce the Israelis to go back to negotiations to end the war and release the remaining hostages. Netanyahu has coyly said that this is only the "beginning of the end of the war" but no end is in sight. Stray thought: who is left for the Israelis to negotiate with? Hamas has been decapitated and its organization shredded. The Palestinian Authority has been invisible in this entire fiasco, its octogenarian leader (Abbas, I think) totally silent, and the organization has never had much clout in Gaza. It has even less now in the West Bank given the actions of rogue Israelis who the government either supports or has no power to stop. Point to remember Hezbollah is NOT Palestinian; Saudis, Omanis, Syrians, etc. are NOT Palestinian. Who can truly speak for the Palestinians?

The last "full scale" Target store in the U.S. is slated for closure. The retail giants I grew up with are dwindling. Sears, Penneys, K-Mart are all ghosts of what they once were--if they still exist in some form at all. We often drove down to the large mall and started at Sears then strolled past the small stores to finish up at the Penney at the other end.

Concerning Israel's aims (or Netanyahu's aims) Bill Astore has some opinions that parallel my own: the real aim has been to annex both Gaza and the West Bank and for Netanyahu to short circuit the corruptions indictments against him and remain in power. Astore is quite cynical about the role the U.S. is playing. I don't know if our government is really on board with the Israeli program or if our politicians really can't adjust to the fact that the Israel of today is not the Israel we originally supported. Or perhaps the problem is a residual sense of guilt for not doing anything much to counter the Final Solution and did quite a bit to trap Jews in Europe as the Nazis killed 6 million of them.

Charles Eisenstein has an intriguing post on "political bypassing" which derives from the notion of "spiritual bypassing." Both are tactics that allows individuals to evade deeper and perhaps intractable problems by either spiritualizing it or politicizing it. I have it on my list to reread. I am not sure yet what I think of the idea.

October 16, 17

 Sunny day today after a stormy night. If the weather forecast is accurate we should have some dry, cool, and sunny days before the temperatures go back to above normal again. The cool nights have taken a toll on the warm season plants. I plan to start culling the gardens and rearranging things before things freeze.

Stray thought: I don't expect the election result to settle anything. No matter who wins or loses no one will be satisfied or accepting of the results. A lot of words have been bandied about concerning "our democracy" and the importance of voting. But no one is mentioning directly the importance of respecting the outcomes whether you voted with the winning side or agree with the results. We are seeing the intensification of a trend I first noticed about 30 years ago when a ballot initiative concerning gambling came up over and over again in successive local elections. The pro-gambling side would win and the anti-gambling side came back to rally their side to defeat the resolution the next time--and on and on it went till finally the proponents of the measure won back to back elections by very large margins. Even then the opponents tried to undo through the legislature what the voters had approved. We have seen that repeatedly over the last couple of decades. Voters in Florida approved an initiative to restore voting rights to felons who had been released from prison. The Republicans in the Florida legislature passed add-ons which basically reversed the intent of the voters who voted for the initiative. We watched as the Republicans in Ohio tried to rig the electoral process to prevent the likely approval of a Constitutional amendment protecting a woman's right to decide on abortion. They are still trying to nullify legislatively the amendment voters approved by a nearly 60-40 vote. We have a large part of the electorate who respect voting ONLY if the results of what they support wins. That ISN'T democracy. 

Aurelian has an interesting post this morning that I think touches on the stray thought above. I have kept the post on my e-mail to read again because it is quite long. But several points resonate. For instance, the growth of what I have called "rampant individualism." Our society is geared to producing psychopaths who are utterly self-centered. The former (and hopefully not future) president is the prime example. There is much more in the post which I need to ponder.

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Another sunny but very cool day. I have been chilling out with a couple of computer games and my needlework. But it is now time to go through the blogs I find in my e-mail.

Reading Bill Astore's post today I had a couple of stray thoughts. First, I like the title and subtitle on his post: Remember When Politicians Made Promises? Want Meaningful Change? Forget About It. He basically says that Trump and Harris are sticking with a status quo program while Stein is the only choice for, as he puts it, "meaningful change." But the source for the graphic is the Stein campaign and it deliberately paints both Trump and Harris with the same black brush. Harris has proposed universal health care, capping medical costs, dealing with the high cost of housing and education among other proposals. Two, Astore evidently tells us to forget about "meaningful change" because only the candidate he prefers is proposing the changes he (and I would guess a lot of other Americans) want. But the only way Harris or Stein can get their programs enacted is if enough of the legislators to be elected in November also agree. The chances of Stein being elected are low to non-existent and the chances of a Harris winning with a majority in both the house and senate aren't much better. I don't expect "meaningful change," by any definition of "meaningful" or "change," no matter who occupies the White House.

Another Stray Though: many of the problems listed in that political ad will be solved or made meaningless over the next decades simply because people will act on their own to find their own solutions. College is too expensive? Over the last decade or so various universities/colleges have found their enrollment figures going down among their traditional pool of "customers:" recent high school grads. Actually the problem has been on the horizon for at least three decades because that is marks the time when they made efforts to bring in middle aged adults. But that hasn't made up for the loss of younger people. Housing too expensive? A lot of younger people whose jobs are in cities started some time ago to rent. Or, if they are really intent on buying a house, the follow the maxim that became popular about 15 or so years ago: drive till you qualify. And their needs are being accommodated. Our city has bus service connected to the commuter rail system going into Chicago and commuter bus service into the Loop during the rush hours. Cost of living too high? Well, multigenerational households have been increasing for the last two decades. Young people who find their incomes don't cover rent and other expenses (like student loans) have been moving in with parents who may also have grandparents living in the same household. That, however, doesn't bode well for the politicians because, if people find their own solutions, they will start wondering what the hell good is government and why the hell are they paying so much in taxes.

October 15

 Sunny today but we expect pulses of lake effect rain today. We had almost constant rain. I hope things out in the gardens will dry out enough to get some more clean up done. It turned quite cool last night--enough that I turned on the heat. But the weather forecasts call for a rollercoaster of temperatures for the next week or two. 

Bill Astore covers a controversy I have seen revisited often over the last thirty or forty years: whether it is better to vote for the better of two "evils" or to "waste" your vote on a third party candidate whose proposals better align with your values. I debated this very question often over that time. I didn't really want to vote for Clinton but Trump, even in 2016, was totally unacceptable. I didn't really want to not for Biden but all the other candidates I preferred fell by the wayside and Trump was even more unacceptable in 2020. The last four years have only solidified my assessment of Trump. In fact everything he has said and done has intensified my disgust. Considering how the party "leaders" in positions of power have rallied around him I will not vote for almost any Republican candidate at any level. I have said before that the only one who has done anything to earn my vote is the Republican Mayor of our town who is running for reelection. The candidate for Governor was our Senator who voted to "acquit" Trump at his impeachment trial which makes him unacceptable. The Representatives voted against the impeachment and are similarly unacceptable. What I do  know now is we have a choice between a Democrat whose policies probably diverge from what I think are needed or a "putative" Republican who respects no boundaries, no laws, no traditions. And he has people around him who will facilitate his policy or push what ever of his buttons that will lead him to enact their policies--policies I find offensive. I don't think in terms of "wasting" my vote. I think in terms of who has a chance of being elected and will follow customs and laws--or one who also has a real chance of being elected and won't. I like voting (even if my choices are rarely successful), I like living in a country where laws are usually supreme (not psychopaths), being able to criticize without wondering if someone with power will sic the Justice Department or the IRS on me. I simply hope enough of my fellow citizens agree--that is what democracy is all about. And we will have it, as Benjamin Franklin may have said, as long as we can keep it which means as long as we value our democracy to elect people who won't destroy it. If both of the candidates would support our Constitutional order and abide by our laws we can indulge in supporting third party candidates who are more philosophically palatable.

October 14

 Welcome to half past October. Evidently today is Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day. As usual didn't do anything to "celebrate." I am surprised that I didn't see any reminders. I don't know if there were any parades but they would have been overshadowed by the Chicago Marathon yesterday.

No wonder Trump and Musk are such good buddies. It's all about the grift. A "free" star-link internet service he says he is accelerating for disaster hit regions comes with a big cost: $400 star-link starter kit and, after thirty days, an automatic shift from a free service to a $120/month subscription. Such generosity!! (Sarcasm alert)

Pissed Off Thoughts: the news today said that the administration is sending an advanced "defense system" with its missiles to Israel and, evidently, U.S. troops will be sent also. Israel seems to have been able to create a wasteland in Gaza without more U.S. weaponry. It seems to be able to attack putative Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon, suspected remnants of Hamas in the rubble of Gaza, perceived enemy commanders in Tehran and Houthi enemies in Yemen without more U.S. weapons. Or U.S. personnel whose "mission" isn't at all clear. It is past time for our government to stop being the world's arms merchant.

October 10

 Good morning. We have another sunny and dry day predicted. I checked the gardens and didn't find anything needing water. The cooler temps help with that. I cleaned out one of the vegetation in one of my buckets yesterday--not a hard thing because it was growth from the seeds the birds scattered. I plan to put a layer of newspaper over the soil to prevent any hard rain from splashing the soil out. I have several in mind to clear but I will wait till late next week because the paving work continues and trash pickup is a bit hindered. Next week we should be able to put the large tote out for collection. 

With Hurricane Martin leaving a mess and the mess left by Hurricane Helene not yet cleaned up some of the commentators on the news/talk shows are starting to talk about insurance--as in what the claims will be. I have seen estimates of damage ranging up to  $150+BILLION. The insurance industry has been under stress for more than a decade. Companies have been leaving states with very expensive risks and states have been trying to either force them to stay or backstopping the insurance premiums for customers. This article goes into the tactics companies are using to stem their losses while ensuring their shareholders get a return on their investments. De Santis in Florida pushed a "reform" of insurance and property laws that have limited company liability and made it more difficult for their customers to sue to enforce the policies. More than 20 years ago I noticed that the insurance industry along with several other big industries were quietly taking actions to mitigate the cost of climate change for themselves while politicians and pundits on the right insisted climate change was a hoax. However, the number of multibillion dollar weather and other disasters is rising. This article notes 19 confirmed such events this year alone before Martin and Helene visited our shores. I did a quick and dirty search for information on the costs per year and found an interesting graph which shows that the costs have increased astronomically over the last 15 years. I wonder how long before this whole country will be uninsurable.