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.

January 28

 Sunny this morning but not at all warm. But I had to go out to drag the trash tote out for collection. No real choice about it because it was full after a month of missing the collection. Christmas took care of one because I forgot which day it would shift to--same for New Year. Then the weather over the last two weeks--ten days of which I spent recovering from the fall I described before. I am finally able to breathe and move my arms freely without pain. I think I bruised my ribs badly. But I don't heal up as fast as I once did.

When I said I had to drag the tote out I mean exactly that because of the weight and the remaining snow. But It will be easier to bring it back in when they do empty it. I don't leave it out because those things have a tendency to go rolling down the street in a wind.

Stray thought: some people think Trump wants to return the U.S. to the 1950s, or 1930s, or the world of 1900 but I think he really wants to go further back to the 17th century and the age of the "Divine Right of Kings" age, with himself as king of course. He should remember that didn't turn out so well for some of those kings. Charles I was executed in England. His younger son, James ll, was overthrown in the Glorious Revolution. And though Louis XIV died of very old age in his bed, his grandson, Louis XVI was beheaded in the 1789 revolution in France. And those were societies with traditions of monarchy. This society has a tradition of successfully revolting against monarchy.

Aurelian has an interesting article on the problems of "managing the powerful." The political structures may change but that remains a common feature whether managing kings or presidents or dictators. 

 The sun is going in and out, and the wind is blowing the snow that has already fallen all around. I got out and shoveled the path to the back gate and cleared around the trash tote. The people our landlords call in to clear snow got our sidewalk to the street and the mail boxes. As I suspected there wasn't anything important in there. The electric bill has been on my table since this last storm started and I knew if I mailed it in it wouldn't get through before the due date but trying to set up a payment was a thoroughly frustrating and futile process. I spent a lot of time going through the chatbot assistant which couldn't help, and had to be transferred to a real person who couldn't help either and who transferred me to billing which disconnected me. In a fury I decided to just write the check which will go out tomorrow and pay the late charge if necessary. I have decided the next time I have a problem getting the payment out in a timely manner I will simply wait til the next month and catch up. I have never found on-line interactions at all easier or more efficient. I do hope we won't have another winter storm like this last one any time soon.

Watching BBC this morning and a major story covered was the free trade deal signed between India and the EU. That combines the first and third largest populations in the world. But I had another thought: besides being economically beneficial to both countries it might be India's way of gaining protection from Trump who has been aggressive about India buying Russian oil. Will the U.S. market mean as much to India when they have a partner with a population slightly larger than the US and a GDP a bit more than 2/3 of the US.?

And think about end-around maneuvers the latest Trump moves removing Bovino from command of the ICE troops in Minneapolis and pulling some out. I notice that a number of REPUBLICAN members of the Senate have said they won't vote for the new funding bill with the more money for an already bloated ICE. I have a suspicious mind and think Trump is trying to promise little (pulling out some of ICE and demoting Bovino) and get a lot (Republicans voting for his funding bill.

I noticed a number of commentators this morning gave the Trump's ouster of Bovino and announcement of removing some ICE thugs very short shrift. As one said plugging Homan in at the top of the ICE operation is a tell since he has been a big supporter of the policy behind ICE. He is only moderate compared to Bovino. As a couple noted the moves is more to try to create better optics and does not signal a new policy.

 Sunny this morning--so far. We got somewhere between 6 and ten inches of snow. The crews have made a good start on removing it from the streets, driveways and sidewalks. Someone came along with a little tractor and cleared part of our sidewalks but the part of the pavement from the door to where it joins the path to the street still remains snow packed. I swept the snow away from the patio door step. I started the chili just now. The meat is browning with the beans and tomatoes on the side waiting to be added. That should do nicely for the rest of the week which is expected to be very cold.

One of the commentators on the morning talk/news/commentary shows was discussing a perceived split in the ICE/Homeland Security Agency on the increasing brutality of their operations. The comment that stood out was that Christi Noem and Steven Miller wanted/approved of the "spectacle of violence" they see in the news from Minneapolis. It brought to mind what the agent who shot Renee Good was doing while he confronted her--he was using his phone to "make content" of what was going on. That seems to be a common activity among Trump's minions--making content to push out their, usually fraudulent, story. The Romans had their "circuses" where gladiators fought til bloody or dead. Those "spectacles of violence" were routine parts of Roman life. Every inauguration of newly elected consuls, every military triumph, and other significant event was celebrated with celebratory bloodletting. Our city streets are now the scene of our government's gladiatorial contests but it is pitting combat equipped thugs against citizens with signs and cell phones.

Attorney General Pam Bondi laid bare the real reason for the Administration's brutality in Minnesota (and probably for the rest of ICE actions): political extortion. Her letter to Minnesota's governor says ICE might be withdrawn IF he gives the Feds their voter data, their lists of everyone receiving SNAP or Medicaid benefits, cancels the "sanctuary city" programs, and generally "aid" ICE/CBP in their efforts to round up immigrants. The Founders of this Republic divided sovereignty between a Federal government and the several States. Here the Federal power is trying to erase the state sovereignty. Some time ago, a couple of decades actually, I expressed the thought that the U.S. was at a fork in the road where one road would lead to a cutting back of the Federal power and restoration of sovereign states and the other would see the Federal government all powerful with the States reduced to mere provinces. Trump loves the Second Article of the Constitution which he and his enablers insist give him absolute power. They forget the 10th Amendment  which restricts the powers of the federal government to specific actions and reserves the rights of the states and the people to all other actions.

Timothy Snider has an interesting re-writing of the Bill Of Rights reflecting the Age of Trump. The calls it the Bill Of Wrongs and I can't disagree.