8 September

It is another nice day today. Sun, dry, and mild temps. Yesterday was hot and muggy which warmed the house to the point where I decided to turn on the air. We did finally get some rain over night--enough so I don't have to water plants today. The clean up in Louisiana and other places hit by Ida even as more rain is predicted to hit those same places. I remember a remark by one of the anchors on one of the news programs talking about the costs of these storms. He has a friend who works as a risk analyst for an insurance company and said he doesn't do much of that any more--he is too busy writing checks to cover the insured damage. I remember reading several times that, whatever the politicians and others might say about climate change, the insurance companies are taking the threat seriously. It is costing them a lot of money.

Tom Engelhardt is back at TomDispatch after a two week holiday. As usual his post today encapsulates much of what I have been thinking as I watched the sloppy withdrawal from Afghanistan, the legislative games in Washington, the cruel legislation passed and signed into law in Texas which other red state governors are salivating to replicate, and so much else that would once have been unthinkable.