Mar 13

 Sunny this morning after an early storm with heavy rain and high winds. I am still recovering from the time change. Since I retired that twice yearly jolt to my system doesn't hit as hard but my biological clock is still a bit out of wack. The cats are even more disturbed. Like most other pets they like a regular schedule and shifting the times puts that schedule out of line with their biological clocks also. They are both settling down now. I also ignored my reading list so it is time to go through it.

First off, I found this piece by Bill Astore at his BRACING VIEWS substack. Once upon a time I wouldn't have imagined that I would ever consider that the government would lie so baldly. They might shade the truth, minimize the story, or such. But today, after especially the past 25 years, I take everything the government spokespeople (and the President) say with a BIG dose of salt. I don't really trust anyone else in power anywhere in the world.

CROOKS&LIARS posted another episode in the "Grifters Living Like Billionaires On Our Dime" serial. Features our "Secretary of War" and follows Kristi Noem and Kash Patel. And we can't forget the First Family. I wonder if Noem has moved out of the Coast Guard Commandant's residence since she isn't with Homeland Security any more.

I will say that Noem's departure has had one positive outcome: I haven't seen any of the whitewashing ads praising ICE agents.

Stray thought: Trumps lackeys tell us the Iran is either breaking of is broken. They have nothing left to fight with. Sounds too much like the story we got about "obliterating" the nuclear threat. Or the Oval Office meeting about a year ago when Trump, very rudely, told Zelensky he had to make major concessions to Russia because he "didn't have any cards." Well, Ukraine is still standing and Iran seems to have some options other than "unconditional surrender."

March 10, 11

 Good morning. We expect thunderstorms a bit later this afternoon. Evidently some really bad weather hit in Michigan just north of the Indiana-Michigan line. A tornado wiped out a large swath of the town. We did get the thunder and lightning but not the twisters. I heard the siren tests a bit ago.

I haven't read anything much in my feeds to comment on or link to. So I have instead concentrated on working on the genealogy. I am on Ancestry and it is pretty good although I do have a problem. I can't really compare the information on the various documents. When I first started in this project I relied somewhat on my memory of our close relatives. And I found my memory was somewhat hazy. I hadn't seen most of the aunts and uncles in as long as 50 or more years. One of my aunts (by marriage) and her children were at my brother's and Sister's in law 30th anniversary renewal of their marriage vows which was 20 years ago. I had to wipe out a whole branch of the family tree which was mistaken. I just found another mistake by actually writing out the census data on one ancestor and wondering why there was a discrepancy in his wife's age and in some of the children they supposedly had. When I went on to her documents I found the problem: two different women named Martha and whose maiden names disappeared in the records. Tomorrow I will rebuild that line but I am tired now.

11********************************************

I am just now perking up a bit. The thundershowers did come as predicted along with hail which began about two hours after we went to sleep. It was hard enough to wake us up out of a sound sleep wondering what was trying to break our windows. Luckily nothing broke. I couldn't go back to sleep for a bit between the continuing pounding and the little Fur Despots demanding a midnight snack. I ignored both but still had a restless night. It is still cloudy and much cooler outside. I decided to take it easy and pulled out the chili I had in the freezer which is slowly defrosting on a very low setting on the stove. I did get a couple of pans cleaned up and ready to use tomorrow. I also got a lot of the family tree rebuilt. I still need to clean up a bit more.

But I think I will shift my focus a bit and start taking a look at the locations where my family members and ancestors lived over their histories. I have been curious about what was happening when and where. I do know several of the men fought in the Revolutionary War, Civil War, WWI and WWII. I need to get a handle on their military history. And I noticed that the military history of my brothers, niece, and my own history wasn't as easy to find. I haven't gone back to find them yet.

March 4, 5

Cloudy this morning with possible rain later. The temperature should reach 50. I didn't see anything sprouting in the containers on the patio. We still have a while to go to before we see the green signs of spring. The trees haven't even started budding out yet. But if it stays fairly warm and dry enough I can begin sweeping up and cleaning.

I don't know what I will see in the e-mail and on the news outlets to either read or comment on. So much now focuses on the war with Iran. And I choose to call it what it is--a war. A war a madman chose for us on a whim. Everything else that bothers us has been overshadowed by that. I did start keeping tabs on the local gas prices Saturday. Yesterday only two gas stations had prices over $3/gal. Today the number is seven. Last week all our stations had gas for less than $3. I am not worried about the car because the tank is above 3/4 full.

05************************************************

We had very foggy conditions this morning and temperatures starting around 50F. The fog is finally lifting. We got rain late yesterday but not heavy and it may have continued overnight because the sidewalks are starting to dry out.

As you can see I didn't see much worth taking time to either skim or comment on. I am pretty much ignoring all of the 'in the moment' news about our bombing of Iran and Iran's bombing of our installations and our allies. The most interesting discussions I have seen has concerned 'battlefield math.' The missile and drone stocks of both sides are depleting and both sides will have to find new supplies somewhere. Through out the Ukraine-Russia conflict reports indicated supply chain bottlenecks both in the US and Europe. Now we have another conflict drawing heavily on existing stockpiles. Which side will run out first? But also, our military is using missiles and drones that cost many times the cost of the Iran's weapons. I remember a scene in an interesting novel between an envoy from a technologically sophisticated country and a senior military man from a less sophisticated country which focused on defense. The military representative told the foreign observer that his country didn't have to defeat any possible invaders. They simply had to bankrupt the enemy.

I noted yesterday a report that a couple of US embassies in in the Middle East reported that they 'couldn't help' American citizens get out of the area. In my mind I asked"COULDN'T or WOULDN'T." Then I saw this on POPULAR INFORMATION. It shows several things clearly. First, this administration doesn't give a damn about its supposed citizens. Second, the description I heard on one of the News/Talk shows of the operation as "shambolic" was actually kind to the administration. The whole operation was a seat of the (shitty) pants operation with no coordination with anyone, with no thought given to Americans in the combat zone, no plans beyond the initial moves, and no coherent plan to either explain the administration's motives. It is almost like they thought the Iranians would either rise up and throw what was left out or that what ever remained after the decapitation of the government would roll over and cry "uncle." Neither has happened. It also shows a total lack of understanding of their opponents. Our showboat of a Secretary of Defense War claimed in a press conference this morning that "we" had control of Iran's skies and control of their destiny. What a joke!

 

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.