May 20

 Nice and sunny today. Hoping it stays that way. Yesterday it started out that way and got so warm I changed out of my sweats into shorts and t-shirt when we came home from shopping. I didn't do much else except play and read. We had a large load this time because we had to replenish so much. The best place to get the cat supplies is the big box store that is about five miles away. If all we need is bread or fresh veggies or such we go over to our other supermarket which is less than half a mile away. It saves gas and our own energy. It took awhile to get everything into the house and put away what we brought home. We won't have to do that again for two or three weeks--when we are low on cat food. And yes our fur babies are picky.

Heather Cox Richardson has a substack post this morning on the Republicans shutting down the debt ceiling talks because the Democrats won't let them rule the show as though they we're the majority in the whole government when they are only a slender majority in the House. (Actually she posted late yesterday but I was already in zombie mode.) I am terminally disgusted with their "holier-than-thou, loud-mouthed, my-way-or-the-highway" attitude. How disgusted? Well we are watching Premier League soccer instead of news. And then the Bully-who-was-once-President decided to chime in and urge the littler bullies to hang tough and let the debt ceiling deadline pass.

Cox Richardson notes the interactions Janet Yellen had with finance ministers at the G7 and the worry expressed by questions about what is going to happen. But I doubt very much that will in any way move the Republicans. We have lived in a global political/economic world for a long time during much of which the U.S. has been the big gorilla. Our current leadership have never known a world in which this country hasn't had an outsized position and voice. The Guy's slogan in his (regretfully) successful 2016 campaign was "Make America Great Again." But he doesn't realize that the conditions that made the age in which most Americans would say we were great don't exist any more.

Two interesting stories I found one after the other. I won't link because you can easily find articles yourself. One noted that New York City is sinking at a rate of 1-2mm per year with some areas sinking at twice that rate because of the weight of the buildings. That isn't good news for a coastal city with sea levels rising and the risk of hurricanes or other storms also increasing. And Indonesia is moving its capital because Jakarta is sinking with almost half of the city already under water. It's problems are partly due to sea level rise but also because the residents have tapped into their aquifers for fresh water and the land is subsiding as the water is withdrawn.

Well, I guess there won't be much of a "green revolution" in the State of Oil and Gas Texas. Abbott just signed a new law which will levy a $400 tax for EV owners to register their vehicles and a renewal fee of $200 per year on top of the already levied $50.75 renewal fee. I can understand some kind of fee to replace the gas tax since that is what maintains the roads. But Texas has one of the lowest gas taxes in the country. This is simply gouging.