September 22

 We didn't get much rain yesterday but not much sun either. In spite of the rain we have had over the last couple of weeks our area is still in the abnormally dry category on the drought monitor map. They say that another possible rain system is moving in for the weekend. The temperatures haven't risen to the 80s as promised by the forecasts which I won't complain about. I can turn off the air conditioning while not turning the heat on and I can open the windows and doors for a breeze.

Every now and then a stray thought pops up about something I saw or read sometime in the past. This morning it was about the relaxation of the Senate's "dress code." It occurs to me that those who are most vocal about how a casual dress demeans the Senate--some how lessens the reverence for political institution are those who seem to have the least respect for the institution and their fellow senators.

Rupert Murdoch is stepping down as CEO of Fox News and News Corp. He will take the title of Chairman Emeritus while his son take over as CEO. I wish I thought the change would make any real change in the company but I doubt it. I did watch one news show on Fox and never went back for the same reason I don't watch a local station owned by Sinclair--I don't like my news delivered with huge dose of propaganda. While I recognize that all of the talking heads have their biases and often deliver those biases with the news, I prefer that is kept to a minimum but Fox talking heads went beyond anything I wanted to listen to. I will form my own opinions, even if they are mistaken, and don't care to be spoon fed them.

Galina Krasskova posting on Gangleri's Grove has a long article that accurately describes our world. First, so many words describing horrible acts are becoming so over used: atrocity, ethnic cleansing, genocide. So many events of those types are happening but the terms used to describe them are losing their punch. She provides an extensive list. Second, one paragraph reminded me of a segment on the old Paul Harvey The Rest Of The Story program on radio (I am showing my age here.) He talked about an elderly aborigine man in Australia who hadn't heard his tribal language in decades as he was one of the last two members of his people left. And even if he had visited the only other speaker of his "native" language they couldn't have talked to each other. She was his sister and ethnic taboos forbade direct interaction between closely related men and women. I heard that broadcast in the 70s or 80s. Krasskova recounted the more recent death of the last member of one of Brazil's indigenous peoples who have been wiped out by illegal ranching, mining, and lumbering. Third, the author of the piece she includes writes "If we are alive, we can act. If we live, we must act." I would observe there isn't much appetite for the kind of action that might make a difference. I think we have seen that the attempt to sanction rogue states hasn't been working well because there really isn't a unified "We" to make them work. Sanctions haven't really worked well throughout the history of their use. They haven't really made any difference in North Korea's actions and ambitions. Nor have they done anything to moderate Iran. 

Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism put up a long article on the Ukraine-Russia conflict today which makes some interesting though little mentioned points. She notes that we really don't know what the conditions in Ukraine really are. Most of the reporters file positive stories and are centered in Kyiv. Zelensky's latest "fund raising" trip to the U.N. General Assembly meeting and to Washington has been met with a rather tepid response and revealed more political fissures among allies. Poland is threatening to retain arms the U.S is sending rather than transferring them to Ukraine and is Ukraine is very unhappy with Poland's excluding Ukrainian wheat from their market. I can see a couple of good reasons which no one is mentioned out loud: if Poland is not so sure that Ukraine will win the war they have to think about who Russia might try to absorb next and supporting an ally by impoverishing your own people (a.k.a., Polish farmers) is never a good strategy. As she mentions the end is not yet really apparent. Russia might win outright. Ukraine might win outright. We might see an armed standoff with intermittent combat into the foreseeable future. How does each side define "win" and are either of the definitions at all realistic? Can Ukraine really depend on continued support for its military efforts and, later, its rebuilding? I am doubtful. And I am certainly doubtful if the so-called "private interests" will be interested in investing in Ukraine's rebuilding. And if Russia does swallow Ukraine, how bad will be the drain on their own strained economy? We could see neither "win" and both collapse.