June 23

We got a bit of rain--a very little bit, but welcome. I got the sage, mojito mint, and lemon balm ground and in jars yesterday. I had dried them the day before. The stevia, spearmint, and peppermint are on the list for harvesting and drying today. I should also refill the bird feeder and sweep up the hulls and seed they scattered.

I loved this cartoon I found on JaninSanFran's post today. She has a long quote from the New York Times which questions how much affirmative action has helped level the field for women and minorities in all phases of life. I grew up before affirmative action and experienced both affirmative mentorship and negative bias throughout without affirmative action. We are a society that has enshrined the idol of the conquering individual who advances SOLELY by his/her own merit. And we have forgotten that no one really succeeds without lucky breaks, helpful and supportive  people, as well as individual pluck, intelligence and ability. I remember the first woman who was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship which had been reserved for men only before. She insisted that she wasn't a "feminist" and had achieved thee award on her own merit. Yeah, but how many women before her were equally accomplished but were denied because of her sex? And a question for the Times writers: do the "downsides" of affirmative action (for whom) really outweigh the benefits (and again for whom)? I think the jury is out on that and anecdotes are NOT data.

GZero notes some "gaps in our empathy" in the wake of the OceanGate Titan tragedy. Somehow a "adventure" goes tragically wrong but involves five wealthy people who paid a quarter of a million dollars per person, gets a lot of attention and a swarm of rescuers but a rickety boat overloaded with refugees sinks in the Mediterranean with hardy a mention and a single boat responding to their call for help. Improve the News makes much the same point in its "Cynical Narrative"

The submersible's implosion and the death of its occupants is undoubtedly tragic. At the same time, it's telling that the world rallied to find a missing sub while giving minimal coverage to the shipwrecked migrants that went missing off the coast of Greece last week. As the global media and the international marine agencies try to investigate Titan's loss, they must also give more sympathy and attention to the hundreds of migrants that remain missing.

I wonder how many RepTHUGlican candidates will actually "qualify" for the first debate. One of the demands from the national committed is that they sign a 'loyalty' pledge to support whoever the eventual candidate might be. Christie said he would make the pledge as sincerely as The Former Guy did in the last election cycle. De Santas has refused. TFG has also refused (so far). And I think a couple of others have also. The party now has a gaggle of contenders setting up the same pattern from 2016 where they split the vote so that someone with less that 30% of any vote could win.

A lot of press attention has been focused on the Blinken trip to China which culminated in a brief "audience" with Xi. Robert Reich has an interesting post exploring the behind the scenes activity where "greed and money" converge. I have said for some time that big financial/industrial organizations (Tesla, JP Morgan Chase, etc.) are not really American companies any more. They have no roots in the American economy or society. The only allegiance they pledge is to profit and they go where they think they can get the most profit.

The Census Bureau published an interesting study on the aging of our population. They say that the average now is 38.9. I wonder how many of my generation is looking at their children or, as in my case, nieces and nephews and noting they are all over 40. A couple of mine are pushing 50.

This cartoon from Caitlin Johnstone's blog this morning sums up my feelings about our political system. I am still looking for the lesser of the evils. 

Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism has posted at she calls a "public service" piece concerning a rise in fungal diseases that are often going undiagnosed because of "doctor ignorance" because medical schools aren't teaching their students to diagnose them. Climate change has spread the organisms to new areas and increased their ability to infect people. COVID has also left a population of survivors whose weakened immune systems make them vulnerable. It is a long piece but worth reading.