March 2

 Welcome to March and, for some, the beginning of Spring. I generally wait until the Equinox later this month and even then expect Winter to put up a fight. In my planting zone the safe planting date is mid May, usually. By that time I will see if any of the plants from last year survived. That is always a surprise.

And welcome to the third day of the "what ever they want to call it" against Iran. A couple of the talking heads (Republican variety) tied them into linguistic pretzels avoiding the word "war." A lot of other things were ignored. Some of the commentators noticed a lot of crowing over the ability of the U.S. to project force half way around the world. However, they also noticed that the interviewees didn't address whether that force SHOULD have been projected. Capability but no ethical considerations.

Corbin Trent makes a number of good points about the Trump administration's choice of war and use of the word "evil." I have seen too much labeled as "evil" and seen the discussion dissolve. Almost no one ever asked "evil by what definition?" Trent also does a good job of summarizing the history of the U.S.-Iran relations. And he notices how the initiation of war-like operations in Iran has swallowed any discussion of our other problems for which Trump really has no solutions. I noticed that this morning with the news before I turned on a Harry Potter marathon which doesn't address our national problems but is at least entertaining even though we have seen it often.

Don Moynahan posted a good run down on the various rationales the administration has cycled through trying to hit on one that will resonate with American voters. One sure tell that someone is lying is how they shift story to justify their actions. Lucky for Trump's minions and party supporters, but not for us, most aren't looking for supporting evidence or facts. They aren't even trying to manufacture evidence like George H. did to get us into attacking Iraq. They don't have to.

Stray thought while reading that our Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz, when asked about mess in the Middle East, said "Freedom is never free." At least he has a record of military service but tell me where are Don Jr., Eric, and Baron whose daddy evaded the draft with questionable bone spurs. I get tired of people who parrot the same sentiments Waltz expressed but don't pay any of the price themselves. 

February 28, 29

 I would say "good morning" but it really isn't. I woke to the news the Bibi Netanyahu and his hand puppet (a.k.a. Donald Trump, sort of president of the U.S.) have launched air strikes on Iran to obliterate the nuclear capacities they claimed had been obliterated with the last strikes. Perhaps we should have expected a "wag the dog" maneuver since the early midterm election season is looking somewhat dismal for the Republicans. And the Epstein debacle isn't going away. And people don't really believe the administration's blather about a booming economy. We all looking at our lives and questioning for whom that economy booms because it certainly isn't for us.

Bill Astore's post today gives the news almost the right level of sarcasm it deserves. He notes something that I did: the absence of the accurate word "war." Our whole system has become so abstract that an abundance of evils can be at least partially hidden by legalistic language. Remember when the judge in the E. Jean Carroll case said that under "normal usage" what Trump did to her would be called "rape" but because of the wording of the law of NY he could only judge Trump guilty of "sexual assault." It may not be "technically" murder that ICE killed two Minnesota residents and U.S. CITIZENS, but by any normal usage of the word it was. Shakespeare wrote "a rose by any other name is still a rose. I say "war" by any other name is still war, and "Murder" by any other name is still murder.

29*****************************************

Somewhat cloudy this morning in the second day of Trump's and Netanyahu's "war" on Iran. I read something that reinforces the editorial Rachel Maddow wrote on MSNOW asking "cui bono?" The post was Bill McKibben's in which he notes, in the first paragraph, that Iran has the world's 3rd largest reserve oil and the 2nd largest reserve of natural gas. And supposedly the energy moguls are salivating at the thought of going in and "stabilizing" the industry there. They weren't so enthusiastic about Venezuela whose industry is very badly damaged and would be very expensive to refurbish. Not so in Iraq. Follow the money as they always say in criminal investigations.

But something else came to mind. In the early 1950s, The Shah Reza Pahlavi was ousted by a democratic revolution which elected Mohammad Mosaddegh who began nationalizing the energy industry which pissed off the western companies dominating the industry and their home countries. By 1953 the CIA and U.S. money engineered a counter revolution which restored the Shah. The Shah's regime was brutal and his drive to modernize and westernize only intensified the popular resentment which festered until 1979. That brought the Islamic Republic and Ayatollah Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini to power who was succeeded by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 1989. Our government ended Khamenei's rule and, according to reports, wiped out a good number of possible successors. No one knows who will come up to lead though I don't doubt that intelligence agencies all over the world has extensive dossiers on all the likely (and not so likely) possibilities. Are we trying to go back to the 1950s? If so, the leaders of Israel and the U.S. should remember the words of Elizabeth I: I do not like wars. Their outcomes are very uncertain.

And McKibben has some interesting tidbits on various Republican law makers who follow the Trump party line decrying, delaying, and stymying renewal power initiatives while quietly installing solar panels and batteries on their own homes to lower their energy bills. Several took advantage of the tax credits they allowed to lapse.

I'll bore you with another historical reference: after the 9/11 attack when the government rushed to try to make sure we "never again" suffer such an attack on our soil and bolstered our law enforcement agencies and incorporated much of it into the new agency "Homeland Security." Dick Chaney was Vice-President at the time and justified this reorganization and, later, our military operation to remove Saddam Husain on the grounds that we had to guard against any threat, even one that a one percent chance of happening. In other words, we have to vigilant and take vigorous action against any threat however remote in time or from any place. Interesting, that we don't take that attitude about 500- or 1000-year floods, or increasingly devastating wildfires, or category 5 hurricanes.

Kautilya the Contemplator has a piece on Iran that has been rattling around in my brain in a much more fragmented state. Trump and his cronies think of Iran as though it was a western country with funny clothes and strange language. If you cut off the head of a western government and obliterate most of the line of succession you basically cripple the government. But the accounts I have heard indicate that there is NO definite line of succession in the Iranian government and power is somewhat decentralized. Kautilya adds to that the dominance of not just Islam but Shi'a Islam with its long history of venerating martyrdom and you have a mix which would make Iran particularly able to survive the kind of military strike the U.S. and Israel have conducted. It reminds me of the DUNE miniseries (the second of the three attempts to remake the novel on film) where Baron Harkonnen whines to the Emperor that Mua'addib is simply a religious fanatic like so many blown in from the desert of whom many are simply bent of suicide. The Emperor asks him how many religious fanatics he has looked in the eyes and that for them martyrdom and suicide are often the same thing. 

February 27

 Well, it is morning though it is still dark outside. We are about an hour and a bit before we will see the first glimmers of light. Last time I checked the Weather Channel they predicted we will have sun and temperatures approaching 60. When we do get more light outside I plan to check whether the snow is gone from the patio and, if it is, start the clean up for spring. I don't have any plan for what I will plant.

Yesterday, I finished organizing my genealogy notes. The basic filing system is hand written so for a lot of this I am going old school. I find it is hard to flip between screens on the computer and it is often hard to find a specific people. I grew up in a time when learning involved listening, reading and writing. And the last was by hand because we didn't have word processors or computers. I am glad for the computer age and the internet. My aunt (Uncle's wife) conducted research on one branch of her family and traveled to various places to get records. I don't have the resources to do that so the internet is absolutely necessary. An amusing thought came up: about forty years ago I was helping a fellow graduate student navigate through various sources for her Masters' Thesis. She didn't consider all of the various hard copy guides to periodicals, newspapers, research papers available because she intended, with her advisor's agreement, to do her work with on-line information. And that was in the age of dial-up connections. I was dumbfounded but here I am doing something similar. 

I found this interesting piece by way of a post on Cultural Capital. The author asks "how far back in time can we read English?" I got to 1300 before the changes became too much for me. It reminded me of a novel by Paul Kingsnorth, THE WAKE, set in the time of the Norman Conquest and narrated by a not-yet-Englishman living in the fens trying to resist the conquerors. It took me quite a while to work through it because Kingsnorth wrote it as if written by the narrator. And the spoken English of past ages might not be all that comprehensible for modern people either. I found a couple of stories which included attempts to actually recite passages from Shakespeare as they would have spoken at the time. Fascinating and very different.

Update: I won't be sweeping anything on the patio. There is still piles of snow that hasn't yet melted. But the ten day weather forecast is promising a shift from the 30s and 40s to the 40s and 50s. 

February 25

 Good morning, all. Clear skies at the moment but it is a very early morning. And I have already been busy with small tasks. I am about to get my second cup of coffee and putting dishes in the sink to soak for a bit before I wash them. No we don't have a non-human dishwasher. In fact, after years of having one that never seemed to work well and finally ignoring it for a couple of years, we asked the landlord to take it out and put in a cabinet to expand our limited storage. Hey, only two of us elderly women here. We don't use enough dishes to make a non-human dishwasher useful. I generally fill the sink once and use that water all day. Sometimes I skip a day because there are so few dishes to wash. I remember laughing when I saw ads for the new lines of machines that supposedly use so much less water and energy because they wouldn't actually save us anything. Like so much technology which over promises and underdeliver in our situation.

I love little stories like this one from Joyce Vance. Some knitters are making a different kind of "red hat" to counter the MAGA red hat. It is based on the Norwegian red hat protest against the Nazi occupation during WWII. The Nazis were so afraid of any show of resistance they outlawed the red "elf" cap Norwegians often wore that often appeared on the characters in Christmas stories and cards. The Norwegians found ways around the ban to still express their displeasure. That is the latest in a long history of people, usually women, finding ways to express their opposition to what ever repressive force they faced. I saw a series on George Washington's spy net work which included a woman who hung her quilts on the clothes line which signaled British movements and plans. During the decades before the Civil War slave women made quilts which were actually maps to safe houses along the underground railroad. During WWII the U.S. government banned the mailing of knitting patterns because they could be used to pass coded messages as one of the Allied operatives did in occupied France. For years after the US repressed any demonstration of defiance after the annexation of Hawaii and removal of their queen. What they didn't realize was the defiance was expressed in the symbols Hawaiian filters incorporated into their quilts. And of course, the pink pussy hats. Where there is a will there is always a way.

Corbin Trent at AMERICA'S UNDOING recounts a history which is all to familiar to me. Parts of my family have lived it also and I can see it any time I might go through Gary, Indiana (which I go out of my way to avoid). Gary's population history followed the same one Trent described in Detroit. And the causes were much the same: industry moved out, wealthy white residents moved out and taxes dried up. No new jobs moved in. Trent warms the tech workers that they are on the same trajectory and AI will accelerate that change. And the costs for maintaining a "middle class" life style keep going up.

February 25

Good morning. We are enjoying a sunny day and the snow is melting rapidly. For the next ten days or so the temperature will be too warm for any snow though we might have a couple of episodes of rain. I had to go out this morning to pay rent. Often I send it through the mail but after nearly two months I drove over to get out a bit. It is always good to touch base with the landlords.

I turned off the TV last night after Trump's first three or four sentences. I am glad I did because we old ladies need our sleep and I knew we would get a detailed description this morning. Evidently, he talked (ranted, spewed crap, claimed imaginary victories, blamed others for his failures) for almost two hours. A couple of reporters this morning said it was Trump's version of speeches by Castro (or, I could add, any Soviet leader). TL/DNL (Too long/ did not listen)

Stray thought: watching Trump's introduction of the gold medal winning men's hockey team I wondered how they felt being a prop for Trump.

Another stray thought: one of the snippets from the speech the news anchors showed what Trump claiming that prices were coming down. He always seems insulted that we think otherwise. Well, three years ago, after Mom became too frail to do our usual shopping with me and I starting keeping track of our expenditures, we were spending about $400/month. That was for the two of us with occasionally more when we replenished our staples or meat in the freezer and an occasional pizza or meal out. Now, that tally is between $500 and $600 without the pizza, a meal in a restaurant or keeping our staples at as high a level as before. I'm sorry Mr. President, my wallet says prices are up. Our expenditures for gas has gone down but only because we don't drive as much any more and only fill up once a month. One of our largest expense last year was Mom's medical care which included major surgery and rehabilitation. That was jaw dropping. Thankfully, we had the wherewithal to cover our part and, thankfully, we had Medicare and a Medicare Advantage plan.

A third stray thought: I have often thought Joe Biden made a great mistake in even trying to be elected for a second term. The press concentrated on his mental and physical condition while totally ignoring Trump's mental lapses. But his decision to pursue reelection and the Democrats failure to field a viable candidate earlier (combined with the attempt to coronate Kamala Harris without input of the mass of Democratic base) basically made Trump's election possible. I thought that Trump had lost several steps in his term. I thought it was even more evident with his campaign after being out of office for four years. His capacity was definitely diminished.

Good morning. We still have lake effect coming in spurts. It is hard to tell how much we actually have because the wind is blowing it all over. I don't expect it to stay around long because the the daytime highs should be above freezing. And some of the precipitation will shift to rain. 

Well the Winter Olympic Games has ended until 2030. I dread the Summer Olympics of 2028 because Trump will still be President and will try to make it all about him.

Stray Thought: while watching the extravaganza of the closing ceremonies I remembered when we got the stories and medal counts on our nightly news (back when both the national and foreign news occupied HALF AN HOUR every night). It was always after the fact not simultaneous. But over the last forty years things have changed. The broadcast networks and cable developed the ability to sent reports by satellite and they found that exclusive rights to broadcast the games. USA and NBC devoted extensive amounts of time to showing the games sometimes time-delayed but often in "realtime." If you were a night owl sports fan you could stay up and watch. And the countries hosting the games have made the ceremonies a spectacle. Have we lost something in this?

Second Stray Thought: I have heard a lot of frothing at the mouth about the SAVE Act and decided to read the actual bill yesterday. Much of the verbal diarrhea is overblown as to what it will actually do. To start off the SAVE bill (it isn't an act yet) requires that voters present proof of citizenship and specifies IDs that many people already have which would qualify: Military ID issued by the Federal Government, Tribal ID issued by Tribal governments, Passports issued by the Federal Government, and Real IDs (also called Secure IDs) issued by states in accordance with the requirements of the Federal regulations. I have described my own efforts to get a Real ID drivers' license and finally did so after much effort and a consultation with a lawyer (which thankfully was free). 

Given what is in the text (at the moment) I wondered what the problem is in getting one and why was the SAVE bill even necessary. I can think of a couple of problems. I have been trying to find a birth certificate for my paternal grandmother born in 1905 and paternal grandfather born in 1896. Both were born in rural areas where such records are often haphazard and many were born at home. I read about such problems when the Real ID law was passed in 2005. I also wondered what state compliance looked like since many states objected to the law because it put most of the cost of the law fell on them. All states officially comply but many people object on various grounds including feelings of Federal overreach, cost, and the effort to collect the necessary documents. Though my state has required the process for new licenses and non-drivers' state id's they do allow work arounds in case the documentation is not available. So the SAVE bill won't really have any effect on non-citizens voting (which has been shown negligible in several studies) and I have to ask why bother besides stroking Trumps already over large ego.

Robert Reich posts a political cartoon every week with a speech bubble his readers can fill in. He posts the best suggestions the next Sunday. This new cartoon showed the Supreme Court justices on their high bench looking at the tiny Trump throwing a fit way below and readers have to supply what one of them is saying. I can't enter because I am not a paying reader but my first thought  was "PLEASE!! SOMEONE FIND HIS BINKY!!" For those not familiar with that word binky=pacifier.

Feb 21

 Cloudy and cooler as expected. The next seven days should be in the 30s and 40s with some kind of precipitation possible for most of the time. We don't have any appointments next week though I plan to take the rent check to the rental office in person. After about two months largely housebound--not even going out to the mail box several days so I wouldn't have to negotiate the ice--getting out feels really nice. We aren't, in modern times, used to being immobilized by weather. But it might become more familiar in the near future.

BLOOD IN THE MACHINE posted this article about areas where Flock cameras have been destroyed. I've watched over the last half century as we have become a surveilled society. It seems as though in the argument between "law and order" and "freedom" the first group wins. So much of this has progressed not quite in the dark but in governmental bodies that few of us pay much attention to. But when it does come to into the open people really don't like it. Robert Heinlein's character Lazarus Long said "In a government of the people, for the people--don't tell the people" or ignore the people or refuse to let them speak. That only works for so long.