February 18

 Sunny again with predictions of temperatures in the 50s. We are two weeks away from meteorological Spring and a month away from astronomical Spring. I am sure the weather gods are teasing us as always. they will clobber us again I am sure. Oh, well, I will enjoy this while it is here. I decided to put my needlework off til this evening. I plan to work on the genealogy project and reading for the rest of the day. Also doing some planning about meals. Mom's appetite is getting somewhat chancy. One day she will reject something she has enjoyed before. Or complain that is it way too much. I have already told her that if a bird ate the amount she does it would starve to death. I am trying to work in several small snacks over the day. We'll see how things go.

Timothy Snyder has a new post titled "Consumptive Capitalism" that is very interesting considering our personal issues. (I say "our" because dealing with Mom's health is a joint project.) That title is the one on an article he reposts from Sara Silverstein dealing with the business of health care--the very expensive business. She starts with an account of tuberculosis or (as it was called in the 19th and early 20th century) consumption. Medical "science" of the day prescribed stays in sanatoria to "hopefully" arrest and cure the disease. Silverstein makes the case that what they were really selling was hope because there were no cures before modern antibiotics were discovered. Even now the programs a months long course of multiple antibiotics unless the bug is drug resistant where the treatment is more prolonged and complicated. Just looked up the costs of treatment and it ranges from about $20,000 for the standard 4 to 6 month treatment to more than $100K for a more complicated and longer course dealing with multiply drug resistant forms and more than $400K for the "extremely" multiply drug resistant bugs. It is still a very expensive prospect which few people can afford out of pocket. At the end she notes that the "wellness" industry nowadays exceeds $2trillion. I can well believe it considering the number of ads for various drugs, nutritional aids, and devices we see every day. As Silverstein wrote the so-called Make America Healthy Again program pushed by Bobby K. Jr is a pipe dream.

Heather Cox Richardson put up another of her LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN essays which brush on the theme of health and weird weather (which touches on the theme of climate change which on writers has called "weather weirding"). She also ties it into Valentine's Day because on Valentine's Day in 1884 Theodore Roosevelt experienced what worst day of his life when both his wife of three years died giving birth to their daughter Alice and his mother died of typhoid. The younger Mrs. Roosevelt died of (they think) Bright's disease a kidney condition often the lingering result of a strep infection. Both diseases were common diseases in the overcrowded cities of industrializing America and at a time when antibiotics were not yet available. The rich could die almost as easily as the poor just in more comfortable conditions. Roosevelt took his grief out west to a ranch he had purchased until the horrendous winter of 1886-7 killed off a huge number of free range cattle including half of Roosevelts. As a side note Richardson didn't mention was that winter ended traditional open range cattle ranching and boosted the market for barbed wire. Roosevelt himself went back east to make a name for himself in progressive politics, shedding the dismissive tag eastern politicians had given him (dude) and, eventually in 1901, succeeding the assassinated McKinley.

David Kaiser often writes an article worth reading. Today he writes about "The End of An Era." Often eras are often, provisionally, identified after the fact. I say provisionally because those eras are redefined as time passes. But I agree that the events he is talking are serious breaks from our recent past. I often cite Isaac Asimov's FOUNDATION series as perhaps the best fictional presentation of the inertia of history and how hard it is to change trajectory. I remember telling my students when I taught history in college "no great change of politics or culture happens from a single cause." 

I would question Kaiser's assertion that most Americans support the new Voter ID initiatives. It all depends on which measures of which proposals you are talking about. I also question the notion that such new Voter IDs are necessary. I remember what I went through to get the mandated Secure ID driver's license which states have been pretty much been bullied by the Federal Government to adopt. My first attempt was stymied because my current name, affirmed by the court decision in my divorce. is not my birth name. Part of the Save Act (which is still a proposed bill) demands that the names match. My mother has gone from maiden name to first married name to second married name. When I tried the second time to get the Secure Id driver's license it sailed through with no problem. I think someone far more forceful than I made a case that stuck for accepting the court establishment of name after divorce.

February 13

 Sunny today and the temperatures should be well over freezing. It is still cold enough overnight to leave frost on the roofs. Much of the snow pack on the parking slips is much reduced and I hope it will be gone by Monday when we have an appointment. For much of the last month the snow made it impossible for Mom to leave the house. She needs her walker but navigating through that mess was dangerous. Even a wheelchair, which she really doesn't need now, wouldn't have made any difference. Right now we are waiting for an Instacart order. It should arrive shortly.

In the interim I am going through my e-mail and listening/watching BBC. We have already seen the early news/commentary on a U.S. site. Evidently only two really significant stories were covered: the new announcement that the Minnesota ICE operation is over and its thugs will be withdrawn (according to Tom Homan), and no agreement has been reached on funding for Homeland Security so that part of the government will technically shut down. 

However, Homeland Security (and ICE) were given a massive infusion of cash in the last budget which made ICE the LARGEST "law enforcement" agency in the government--bigger than the FBI, SECRET SERVICE with other agencies thrown in combined. And Kristi Noem is sitting on billions of dollars that should have been distributed to various states as directed by the Congress.

Stray thought: listening to the news that the Administration has decided to reject the climate science that previous administrations used to control greenhouse gas emissions. As  you may know I have a magpie mind that skips from one thing to another and I thought of the law an early 20th century Indiana legislature passed to define the value of pi as 3. As most of us know the actual value is 3.14159+and unknown number of other digits. The law, even signed by the then governor, didn't make any difference in the mathematical fact or in the geometry math taught to students. Ignoring the science underlying the greenhouse effects won't change the facts.

While reading the segment on ICE leaving Minnesota (depends on how you define "leaving") I wondered where those 2300 ICE people (left in place after Homan "drew down" 700 thugs) would go. This article on CROOKS&LIARS draws on other news sources to detail leases ICE has signed for new concentration camps (I refuse to call them "detention centers which sound far more innocuous that the reality) sited near large cities. We have only heard about the areas where major local disapproval caused either ICE or local politicians to cancel the plans. Evidently others don't mind our incipient police state.

Another stray thought: I didn't see much of Pam Bondi's testimony before that Congressional Committee. What I did see reminded me of something I heard, maybe, forty years ago. Democrats believed government could work and tried to make it better (however you want to define "work" and "better") but Republicans don't think government can work and tried to limit it as much as possible (again depending on your definition of "work" and "limit"). Most of the problem with the definition of work is what you want to work toward, who you think should benefit from the work, and at what cost. Over the years the whole issue has become somewhat fuzzy for Democrats and the Republicans have been laser focused on, as one of their patron saints said, reducing the size of government to the point where it can be drowned in a bathtub. That says there is nothing positive that comes from government but that begs the question of "for whom." And it is increasingly clear that unless government actions is only valuable if it benefits the top 1% of the economic ladder. And benefit means increasing their wealth and influence.

February 11

 Oh my!! Almost half past February. I keep complaining how fast time seems to fly by but It just keeps speeding up. I spent yesterday transcribing by genealogy notes from Ancestry.com to my own files. I often don't see gaps or discrepancies as I go between files on Ancestry. Writing it out and putting it into my own summaries helps. So far Ancestry is the easiest for me to use of the programs I have tried. It is a bit odd that I have had a more difficult time finding information of my nearest relations that some of the more distant ones. Part of the problem is that we are a spread out family that over the years lost contact. I am probably the oldest my generation of the family and I found my childhood memories sometimes reliable. Mom is the only member of her generation left and sometimes her memory isn't reliable.

Just found this article by Robert Reich which describes the economy very well and why people aren't feeling good about it. For most of the last century economists have touted "productivity" which is defined as "output per worker." However, various business and finance people have discovered that they can boost "productivity" by cutting workers and pushing the work on those who remain. Yeah, they actually produce more per worker. Or, they can invest in automation which will allow them to, again, cut worker bodies creating the impression of higher productivity. Each strategy will increase GDP and may increase profits, though Rachel Bitecofer I saw recently indicates that companies can invest in expensive technology and yet not turn a profit. But that totally ignores the workers who are without jobs. We were always told not to worry about that because new, higher paying jobs would open up for them. That isn't always true. As we have found out.

Stray thought: my what a bunch of whiney babies some of the Republicans are. Now they want to "investigate" the Bad Bunny halftime show. As if they really don't have more important matters to deal with. But I guess having the vapors over an AMERICAN from Puerto Rico singing in Spanish is easier than dealing with those problems.

Second stray thought: I have a vague memory that I read someone once said that disasters make for bad law. Politicians have a tendency to over react and make vague and over broad laws which tend to be messy in practice. I remember thinking of that back in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks when Homeland Security was established and agencies like FEMA were rolled up into it. Allegedly for efficiency. Instead FEMA has been neutered and made ineffectual. And under the current administration nothing runs efficiently--except the gutting of every program that helps those of us who are not part of the "Epstein class."

Another stray thought: those poor right wing snowflakes went spastic about Bad Bunny starting with his very polite sentiments about ICE but no one has mentioned Billie Eilish's comment which I though was absolutely right on point: "no one is illegal on STOLEN LAND."

Yet another stray thought: a number of commercials are so irritating that I mute them so I can more easily ignore them. We leave the TV on because it is Mom's main amusement. However, I had a slightly different reaction to the Homeland Security encomium to ICE declaring the men of ICE are loving fathers, little league coaches and valiant upholders of law and right. I mute it just like the other irritating commercials but in my mind I remember the Joseph Goebbels was also a loving father and when the Third Reich was in its very last moments gave his six young children morphine followed by cyanide before he and his wife took their own cyanide pills. You can be a loving father and still be a monster.

Bill Astore asks on his substack if Iran will be our next "forever war." I would argue we have never ended our Middle East/Central Asian forever war. We have just moved "assets" around to counter this or that perceived threat. We won't get out of these wars until we realize how bankrupt we are. And re-evaluate our ties to Israel.  I don't recommend cutting those ties but a deep examination of the relationship.

February 6. 7

 Cloudy but temps are in the high 30s so the light snow that fell overnight probably won't stay long. I spent the morning with a bit of crochet and a couple of housekeeping chores. Then I continued my genealogical explorations. This all began when Mom wondered what ever happened to her father who disappeared from her life when she was very young. I did find he had died in the late 1980s in California but he has proven to be a hard person to track. But he wasn't the focus of this morning's untangling process. I found an entry which listed a second wife and about a dozen children for an ancestor four or five generations back (early 1800s to late 1800s). It took awhile for me to straighten the entry out. I think I found the source of the problem: a summary of a census report. I checked out all of the census reports available for him and found only one wife mentioned and about six children. I found another census report for one of his sons and found that the man and his wife lived on one parcel of land adjacent to parcels on which the son and his family and a daughter and her husband lived. Someone had mashed all the people together. It took me the morning to get everything amended. By then it was dinner time so I will pick it up tomorrow.

I saw a snippet of a news report last night which showed the start--attempted start--of a wrestling. I think the announcer was introducing the fighters one of whom looked stunned as the audience started chanting "F%%k ICE". It was os unexpected I don't think anyone knew what to do. CROOKS&LIARS has a good account of the incident.

07*********************************************

After a cloudy morning the sun has come out brightly. I hope the remnants of the snow on the sidewalks. The weather people are saying we are going to have a warm up. Hope they are right. We caught the early Chicago news which covered the Olympics and Super Bowl without much else. That suits me because it gives me a break from the chaos.

Then I spent the rest of the morning washing dishes and working on my time lines for the genealogy. That helps me see discrepancies and keep the people straight. I sometimes get lost when working on the computer for a long time.

08***********************************************

Bright sun but cold today. We had a dusting of fresh flakes overnight. 

February 3, 4

 Good morning. Still cold but no new snow and the temperature is high enough that some of the accumulation we have already had is disappearing. I got out and shoveled the path to the gate. Tomorrow morning I should be able to get the trash out for collection. I will get a closer look at the snow around the car. I would like to get into it without too much shoveling so I can start it up for a bit.

Rachel Maddow had a nice bit yesterday which listed a number of cities and states resisting Trump's attempt to establish his own Gulag Archipelago. If you don't know what I am referring to I suggest you read up on the Soviet system of internal exile in distant prison camps and follow it up with some of Alexander Solshenitsyn's work--like ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH. NBC had this story today which covers the same. I refuse to dignify those with the term "centers"--they are concentration camps pure and simple.

04**********************************************

Cold and cloudy. So far no more snow. I think I said a couple of days ago I am so tired of winter. Punxsutawny Phil saw his shadow so, according to the lore, we have six more weeks of winter. That would take us to the Spring equinox. But if Springs plays like winter has we won't be done with the cold and snow til June. UHG!!

I was so disgusted by the news I turned it off real early and started working on the genealogy records. In between I got got a bit of housework done and put in a grocery order.

I saw an interesting post on Facebook. The poster said that in Ireland they say that you leave a part of your soul in everything you crochet and you should make an intentional mistake to leave your soul an escape path. I don't have to worry about that because I have yet crochet a perfect piece. I remember reading that Navajo weavers weave in a line from the pattern to the edge. It is a "spirit line" which allows the weaver's spirit to leave the finished piece before she starts another. I love the notion that there are spiritual elements to the creation of fabrics.

Oh isn't it nice that Tom Homan has announced 700 ICE agents are leaving Minneapolis. Hey, Tom, what about the other 2300 that are still there? And, yes, I am being very sarcastic.

January 31, February 1

 Well our winter weather hit overnight and we have about six more inches of snow. The city snow plows are working but I don't expect to go outside at all. It took our landlord's landscaping people about four days to clear the last storm's leavings. I don't think there are any more bills to come in but I won't worry about it. Whatever comes in the mail will wait til I can safely get out to the mail box. (Note: the mail delivery van just drove by.) Shoveling the path to the patio gate can wait til Monday. I have been getting some quality stitching time in over the last few days. I had several hexagons to fit into the two pieces I am working on. They both are building nicely. I did some more on the three embroidery pieces I have been working on. Update: the snow removal crews were out and got sidewalks cleared. I am going to have to look out the upstairs window to see if the cleared around the cars. Last time they didn't.

Feb. 1*******************************************

The sun is just coming up and they say we will have it around until sometime this afternoon. The temperatures should start warming--slightly--over this next month. January did seem a bit long especially the last two weeks when Nature froze us in place and snowed us in.

I saw a bit on Facebook which had me smiling and hoping it was true: Minneapolis has been nominated for this year's Nobel Prize. I had to check it out and IT'S TRUE. Check it out here. Of course, the HILL decided to downplay the story by describing the nominating organization (The NATION) as a PROGRESSIVE outlet. I hope the city and its people get the award and Trump does not. The first deserves it; the second DOES NOT.

A second story on Facebook reported the the United Nations High Commissioner for Civil Rights has accused ICE of violating human rights and dignity. Evidently that is also true according to the Vatican News. It is amazing how many in Trump's administration are Catholic but have forgotten, as Joe Scarborough often notes, to read the "red words" in their Bibles--or skipped them in the first place.

William Hogeland put out a post that is intriguing. I didn't read all of it because half of it is behind a pay wall and I don't know exactly how he will develop his ideas. He starts off describing two authors on what he describes as legacy outlets who link the protests against ICE and Pretti's carrying a handgun to a protest to the Founding Fathers ideas. Hogeland notes that those are very tenuous links. He points to a very prevalent among pundits: taking modern events and putting a patina of approval on them by linking them back to our national Saints. We rather hope the present will work out like the past because we know how it ended and we have been taught all our lives how good and appropriate the ending that led to the beginning of us. But as has often been said "history doesn't repeat but it does rhyme. those rhyming chords might be the start of a new and different song. 

January 29

 Cloudy with episodes of sun so far. But still cold enough I don't want to spend much time outside. I should let the car run for a bit but as cold as it is I might drain the battery. I will wait for a warmer day. Right now I am waiting for my grocery order to arrive. I put in a short order Tuesday but that was heavy items like cat litter. Today it was all food. The ten days we had snow and extremely cold weather I used what we had on hand so a number of often used items is either low or gone.

Stray thought: watching a segment with an interview with Minnesota Governor Walz and I was struck by his description of his phone call with Trump. Trump asked "What's the matter with Minnesota?" to which Walz replied "Nothing." Trump came back with the observation that the ICE operations in other cities didn't have the same problems and Venezuela operation went off smoothly with no loss of American lives. Walz replied with thoughts I had: none of the other cities had the same level of ICE initiated violence and aggression. And what the hell does Venezuela have with Minneapolis unless Trump is equating a U.S. with a foreign adversary. That is troubling.

Second stray thought: watching Homan's press conference I was underwhelmed. He mentioned "agreements" with the State and city which gave the Feds what they wanted like having prison and jail authorities inform ICE when they are releasing prisoners on whom they have removal orders. That raised alarm bells in my mind and one of the reporters asked if the prisoners they wanted were non-violent offenders who often were only guilty of crossing the border without permission. He provided a vague non-answer answer. The devil is, as they say, in the details. Also he didn't address any of the abuses Walz and others wanted cured: remove the masks, make the agents wear uniforms and badges, and get warrants--real judicial warrants. Note: I am not against the deportation of undocumented people CONVICTED of violent crime. Key word there is CONVICTED. And a second key word is VIOLENT. A minor traffic citation two decades ago doesn't qualify.

I saw the account of the FBI, with Tulsi Gabbard (head of CIA) present, seized the ballots and other records (evidently with a warrant) from the Fulton County Election facility. Still looking for fraud which wasn't there. There are sore losers and sore winners--Trump is the perfect example of both.