December 22

Still dark here. But the Solstice came yesterday so we will see a gradually increasing length of our daylight. I guess I should get real about ordering seeds and/or plants. I started a preliminary list but need to finalize it. I always check out the heat and drought tolerance of any plants I consider growing. I didn't do that ten years ago. Ten years ago I would be looking at tomatoes and peppers. But they don't like temperatures above 90F. I don't have a lot of space so what I put has to be pretty and/or productive. Especially if it is a large plant. We expect rain today which hadn't been forecast earlier in the week. Luckily, yesterday we decided to do our last bit of shopping before next year.

Stray thought this morning: there has been a lot of time spent on comments about the Colorado Supreme Court decision that 1) upheld the lower courts decision that The Former Guy did engage in and abet insurrection, 2) that he is therefore disqualified to hold the office of the President of the U.S. and 3) that it would be unlawful under the Election Code for the Colorado Secretary to list him on the ballot. You can read the decision here. Of course, The Former Guy is going to appeal sometime next week to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

A lot of pundits are reading the entrails (or consulting their tarot deck or looking at their astrological charts) to prognosticate what the Supremes will do. I see several possibilities. First, they might just punt, leaving the situation in Colorado standing because it only affects Colorado. The Colorado Republican Party is threatening to run a caucus (which they have done before) bypassing the primary and allowing their caucus voters to nominate TFG. However, if he isn't allowed on a primary ballot because of the Supreme Court's decision, The Secretary of State couldn't lawfully list him on the general election ballot either. 2) An appeal claiming that he hasn't been convicted in court probably won't fly since the Colorado court found as a matter of fact that he was guilty and the D.C. case does charge him with insurrection and may be decided before the election. Also the U.S. Supreme Court decides based on the law and does not decide on the facts. Furthermore, the Amendment does not specify that a CONVICTION is required. The Supreme Court might decide they can "infer" such a requirement but they are supposed to be "strict constructionists" and "textualists," in other words they say they look at the text. If they go this route they will show themselves to be hypocrites. 3) The Amendment specifies that an insurrectionist can't HOLD federal office not that he can't stand for election or even get enough votes to win. The U.S. Supreme Court might not this and allow those states whose election laws don't specifically prohibit someone who is ineligible to hold the office to be on the ballot. We tend to forget until something forces us to remember that U.S. elections are run by the states. I might be able to dream up more possibilities but I am going to stop here. However, this goes this country is going to be in s**t for at least the next six years.

Some (sort of) good news: California is now out drought. The latest "atmospheric river" has dumped enough to raise their reservoirs to 130% of normal and broken the decade long drought. That moisture is now moving toward Arizona which badly needs it. Of course, the rain has resulted in flooding in parts of Southern California.

CNN has a long article on the Chinese economy and the silence of previously critical Chinese economic analysts. I have read several articles about different sectors of the economy and none of them were optimistic. And the notion that the economy is in a serious deflationary period. Deflation can be as destructive as inflation. Xi and other government officials have been trying to get the Chinese consumer to spend more without much success.

Naked Capitalism introduced this piece as "the definition of madness" and it certainly is--on part of the U.S. and the South American countries in on the negotiations. We certainly do not need another quagmire considering how Ukraine and Israel appear to be going. And how well our previous interventions in Central America and in Columbia went.

This is an interesting discussion of the situation in the Red Sea. I don't know the source on this but I haven't read, in the very scanty coverage in our media, which contradicts the facts or the analysis. I will add one thing to their observations: most of those who have joined the group the U.S. is putting together to counter the Houthis' actions are the ones who benefit most from the trade that goes through the Red Sea and Suez Canal. Most of the others mentioned have strong reasons for not joining in.

Robert Reich continues his multi-part series examining American Capitalism with part 5: The Pernicious Myth of Meritocracy.

Lyz at her substack "Men Yell At Me" has nominated the 118th Congress as "Dingus of the Week." She makes a very good case. I wonder if she does a "Dingus of the Year" list.