November 25, 26, 27

Cloudy today. And quite cool. I think we are both recovering from a more active week than usual. We visited my youngest brother and his wife on Wednesday after failing to connect on Tuesday. Had Thanksgiving dinner with my other brother and his son and grandsons on Thursday. I am tired. I saw an article on which the author talked about everything falling apart rapidly after you reach 70 years old. Some days I could agree with him but usually those days are fairly far between. So today I plan to do as little as possible.

Freddy Deboer has an interesting post. It is a bit of a long read but I think his argument can be boiled down to a simple premise: we are on the down side of the S-curve of technological development and growth based on continued development is a pipe dream.

26*********************************************************************

We have our first real snow. Not much sticking because the pavement is too warm. The remaining plants and the dead stalks are coated. The temperatures are predicted to be much colder over the next few days.

27**********************************************************************

Very early yet. And cold. The weather channel predicts more seasonal temperatures for the next few days.

Looking at the news sites this morning on-line. Found this story which looks at a couple of aspects of the Israeli-Hamas conflict that hasn't made the broadcast news: the disruption of the Israeli farms and the exodus of foreign farm workers who provided the labor those farms need. We forget that the kibbutz is a farming village. And like much of American agriculture rely on large numbers of foreign laborers.

Robert Reich has a good critique of how our "mainstream" media is quietly helping The Former Guy and his campaign.

Tom Engelhardt has a post I saw yesterday that has percolated through my thoughts. Are we already fighting WWIII but it isn't against Russia or China or what ever might mutate from the Israel-Hamas war--but against Nature?. Will, if so we have already lost. Nature bats last and wins. And the "Slow Motion Gaza" isn't so slow motion after all. Many of the effects of Climate Change that were thought once (not so long ago) to be showing up in 2100 are very likely to hit us by 2030 or 2040. And something Englehardt doesn't mention is that for two day this month (November 2023) the average global temperature rose above (barely) the 2*C temperature every climate scientist fears. One thing he said that I didn't realize is that one-third of October days broke the 1.5*C set by the Paris Accord only 6 years ago.

Ilya Shapiro does a good job of dealing with the question of "Where Free Speech Ends and Lawbreaking Begins"? Unfortunately, we have devolved into a society when some of us think that if we can't beat up those whose ideas don't jibe with our own, or shout them down, or deface their property, or crowd them menacingly, they aren't being heard. I started to say we had devolved into such a society but remembered that absurd spectacle of a Republican member of a Senate committee and the labor leader he was questioning challenging each other "outside." That "Senator" later referred, in an interview on the Capital steps, to an episode which most of the audience probably didn't know because we aren't really taught history. Look up the Sumner-Brooks Affair and ask yourself if that is the kind of country you really want. I am not sure we have devolved so much as some of us have revealed what we are and have always been.

The Washington Post has an article (which I was actually able to read--WaPo is usually behind a pay wall) which says the GOP is having financial problems as big donors aren't writing as many big checks and the small donors aren't as generous as they had been. Though the article goes into a bit of "both-sidesism" it is mainly about Republican angst. The problem with the party is who is pulling the strings and the quality of candidates. It is also that most of any real work getting done is the fault of Republican infighting and refusal to deal honestly with the Democrats. What they have done has only been because the minority party saved the day.

Naked Capitalism posted this piece that indicates the Baltic and North Seas are heating up again as Finland, Estonia, China, and Russia are all involved in the breach of an undersea pipeline and communication cables. The pipeline and cables run between Finland and Estonia, and a Chinese ship with connections to Russia is suspected of having cut them.

Reading this article from Naked Capitalism it occurred to me that humans have a history of developing substances that "solve" a problem and start using them prolifically before anyone becomes aware that people may be harmed. We develop jet fuel which does sometimes catch fire and then we invent PFAS chemicals to smother those fires but the chemicals seep into and contaminate the ground water resulting in illness in individuals depending on that water. In the case of PFAS CHEMICALS, 3M and Dupont have settled with the government and agreed to put up some millions of dollars to "help" water companies deal with the contamination. Next up: the lawsuits for personal injury.