August 2

Looks like it might be sunny at least for now. The weather report says it will stay that way with temps in the mid 80s. I have to water the pole beans.  However nothing else absolutely needs doing out there.

Well, the Special Prosecutor got his licks in before Georgia's Fani Willis who is expected to file indictment against TFG sometime in the next two weeks. A couple of commentators brought out the old observation that "a grand jury can indict a ham sandwich." Yeah, however, trial juries have already convicted the Trump Corporation and its CFO, and TFG himself for defamation and sexual assault. He still has the criminal trial in New York for his alleged financial crimes. And who knows how many more.

We had to go to our local drug store, a national chain I won't name, for the first time in about three months. When we get our vitamins we get enough for 60-90 days. It was a bit of a shock. They had completely rearranged things and totally changed the products they carried. They cut the number of brands and items within the categories. We normally get a probiotic but found almost none and those were the high cost brands. We decided we probably don't really need it. We started that after Mom had that bout of viral bronchitis and had received antibiotics to prevent an opportunistic infection. We started the probiotic to correct for the loss of gut bacteria because of the antibiotic. We normally get a vitamin supplement that, hopefully, enhances eye health. Seems like a good idea since we are both well up in age. There were fewer shelves and a lot of the high priced brands on locked shelves. Locked shelves were scattered through out the store. I wonder if that is the future: fewer choices, higher costs and locked shelves.

And Ukraine is sending more drones into Russia--especially Moscow. Of course Putin is squealing like a stuck pig. But anyone who is surprised is naive. Why in the hell would anyone expect that Russia could tromp and bomb all over Ukraine without, eventually, Ukraine stomping back. I also saw a speculative piece about the presence of remnants of the Wagner Group in Belarus on Poland's border. The authors wondered if they might be preparing for a cross border incursion, with "plausible" deniability for Putin and Lukashenko, to cut the Baltic States off from the rest of NATO because the Polish-Lithuanian border is the only connection.

Interesting but not surprising. Over the last 20 years we have seen this kind of thing frequently. There aren't any free standing Physicians's offices. They have all been bought out by various hospitals or hospital groups. Medical professionals have been reduced to highly credentialed sweatshop workers. And they wonder why doctors and nurses are leaving the field and few new prospects are coming in.

Ah, yes, the paradise that is Florida: Don't Say Gay, no medical treatment for transitioning or transitioned people (not just children anymore), trim history to reflect the right wing vision of America, and---LEPROSY.

Robert Reich has a post that is for paying subscribers only but it has an interesting title:will holding Trump accountable for trying to overturn the 2020 election lead to civil unrest or begin to lance the boil. I was thinking that this morning when one of the commentators expressed the notion that the Nixon pardon laid the ground for TFG. Nixon got away with his crimes leading to the question of whether we can ever hold a president accountable for anything. I understood the argument for the pardon: let the country heal and move on. But ignoring such a festering wound doesn't allow healing or moving anywhere. A boil has to be lanced and drained and bandaged before healing can even begin. The political boil was never lanced and the fever still burns.