Last day of first quarter of 2021--DAMN!!

 Well, at least it is sunny--but it is way too cool and a bit windy to do any garden work. I am not toon anxious since I hadn't intended to really start on the garden chores until April. However, I recognize the signs of what one blogger calls IPS--impatient planter syndrome.

Happy April Fool's Day

Mother Nature is providing the joke--we have light, intermittent snow. Well we do have next week with the possibility of 70s and maybe a bit more. So no gardening today. Instead I will alternate reading and some needlework.

I have been listening to the talking heads debate the current administration's policy on Afghanistan and the pull out Former Guy (a.k.a., #45) agreed to sometime ago. They always talk about several of factors: whether an orderly pull out is possible in the month we have left on the agreement, what effect our leaving will have on our allies who also have troops there, whether pulling out will open the way for the Taliban to take over and what would happen to vulnerable Afghanis, especially female Afghanis. One of them today wondered if we have the resolve for an indefinite stay to keep the status quo. I think they are not asking the right questions. First, if we decided to stay indefinitely would we really stabilize the government we recognize. Or would we really just postpone an inevitable outcome we find very distasteful. Second, would our leaving simply open things up for a new "terrorist" center in Afghanistan that would threaten the U.S. or Europe? In case anyone has forgotten, the Taliban didn't conduct the 9/11 attack. That was Al Qaida and most of those who carried out the attack were Saudis. All the Taliban did was allow Al Qaida to set up on their territory. One day we might realize and accept responsibility for the growth of terrorism in the Middle East. Third, I find extremely "conservative" and "fundamentalist" Muslim groups as repulsive as I find "conservative" and "fundamentalist" Christian groups. However, what power do we really have to force other cultures in other countries to tow the line we dictate? We have a long history of triggering regime change and trying to remake nations in our image. That hasn't really worked out well and we have been dealing with the blowback and will be for some time. This is another area where we really need to creatively rethink our actions in the world.

Well, we finally have a real "infrastructure week" courtesy of the Biden Administration. Of course the Republicans have suddenly regained their suspicion of debt, deficit, and large spending programs. We didn't hear a single mewling squeak from them during the Former Guy's administration which added trillions to the deficit and debt with massive tax cuts that benefited the wealthy few and big corporations greatly without doing much for the rest of us. But I noticed that the critics of the plan have a very narrow view of "infrastructure." Basically they want it restricted to traditional energy systems, roads, airports, and water and sewage systems. No alternative energy, limited support for electric vehicles, and almost nothing else. And almost all of it directed to either private companies or to public/private "partnerships." I put that word in quotes because those partnerships usually mean that the public pays, the consumer pays and the private "partners" get a windfall. What is really sad is that voters generally, including Republican voters, appear, from various polls, to support various parts of the program by 60% or more.

Take a look at this for a bit of levity in a time when a laugh is worth a lot.