We have, for now at least, sun and a warmer temperature--a whole 40F. So far most of the plants on the patio are still alive. The indigo is the only one so far that hasn't survived. That is a perennial. So are the mints. They come back each year. The mums may or may not come back depending on how sever the cold season is. They are in containers.
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Sunny this morning and supposed to be in the mid-50sF today. The temperature is on its usual roller coaster--up today, down tomorrow. As you can guess there isn't really much different on any front so I didn't have anything to say. We have a family function today so I don't know what I will get read. We'll see.
We have been watching BBC this morning. Started with the soccer pregame but Mom hates the screechy voice of the female anchor. The American news readers weren't much better. So far the main anchors on BBC are tolerable.
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DAMN TIME CANGE. And yes, I yelled. I wish the powers that be would choose Daylight Saving or Standard and stick with it. I don't really give a damn which.
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Still dark and will be for another hour or so. We had heavy fog yesterday that didn't burn off until mid day. But it was sunny and tolerably warm.
Nothing much changed on any front at all last week. I doubt the end of this week will be any different at the end of this one. Except the country will be a week closer to a government shut down because the Republican idiots can't figure out how to compromise with the Democrats. Considering who they elected as Speaker I don't expect much at all.
There is an old saying that tells us "when you go out for revenge dig two graves; one for your enemy and one for yourself." Israel and Hamas seem to be on the track of mutual destruction. Some where this last weekend I saw a headline which was interesting though I didn't read the article. It basically said that the conflict was the perfect illustration of the old MAD philosophy. For those who have forgotten, or never knew, MAD stands for Mutually Assured Destruction. It was the basis for both the U.S. and U.S.S.R. building massive inventories of nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles. I always thought the weakness of the strategy was its reliance on a form of sanity in which neither side sees any advantage in using the weapons. I asked what would happen if one leader considered it acceptable to annihilate his own people so long as the other side was also whipped out.
I don't pay much attention to polls because I don't know how the pollsters select their respondents and I don't know how they phrase their questions. The polls that say voters are more concerned by Biden's age than they are about The Former Guy's age. Hey, y'all, Biden is only THREE years older than TFG. And for some time TFG has looked far more physically weak and mentally confused. Biden may stumble on a word or express an idea awkwardly. But he isn't confused about which number to put on a possible near future world war. Can any one out there who thinks TFG gave us a better economy name any positive thing his administration did to made your life better?
Actually, thinking about the question I posed at the end of the last paragraph I have a different question: why do we give a president, ANY president, so much credit for what happens in this country? We have been doing that for as long as I can remember. When I way much younger, before the Soviet Union disintegrated, the question usually involved who could be toughest dealing with the Godless Communists. With Ronald Reagan's first campaign it became whether we, individually, better off than we were four years before. But the president, who ever is the president, is only one part of the machinery of government. Even in diplomacy where presidents are generally treated gently we saw George W. failing to get Saudi Arabia to increase oil production, The Former Guy utterly failing to get Saudi Arabia to increase oil production, and Biden failing to get Netanyahu to even pause operations in Gaza. I have been irritated by the focus in the media and others on ISRAEL and its operations; insisting that they pause their assault "to allow humanitarian aid" into the area. Why don't we see similar demands on Hamas? Perhaps because we know they are no more amenable than Israel? Perhaps that is why even those Muslim governments we have reasonably friendly relations with aren't saying much. They know Hamas isn't listening.
There is one respect in which the U.S. would have some leverage over Israel: the funding and the weapons the U.S. supplies. Cutting either is a dicy political proposition. And on the current conflict at least one group which had been a key support for Democrat candidates and policies: Jews. But Jews are on both sides of the conflict believing that what happened on October 7 is abhorrent but the Israeli response is also abhorrent.
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