December 7

Good morning on what might be a sunny day and unseasonably warm. I looked at what is left of the gardens and was surprised to see the spicy oregano, both lavenders, all three sage plants are looking good. The mums show green at the lower levels. If we get a real stretch of winter I expect the only survivals will be the mints and chives which I didn't mention. We'll see.

Robert Reich comments this morning on the current state of the GOP. "De-evolution" is a good description. It is sad to think that the "party of Lincoln" has sunk to the level of threatening members and their families with violence (verbal or otherwise) and promising that The Twisted Santa in Mar-a-lago was taking names and would kick ass. It is also sad to think that a party that was established established in the 1850s on strong principles of anti-slavery and a reasoned political platform decided in 2019 that they wouldn't even put up a platform going with what ever whims their "Orange Jesus" farted out.

Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism has a phrase to describe the decline in quality of goods and services: crapification. Another blogger (sorry, can't remember who) upped the ante and coined a different, ruder term: shitification. This story exemplifies the trend. We have had a postal service since we were Britain's colonies. Whatever government financed it and when the country became bi-coastal with the wide swath of lightly populated territories between, the Pony Express was started to maintain speedy contact. It lasted until telegraph lines spanned the distance. But always the government supported communications. For about three decades political attitudes changed and a move to force the postal service to act more like a profit making business gathered momentum. I have said before that government and government functions are not businesses and making them act like they are opens up a "pay to play" regime. Those too poor to pay don't get to play. Users of the service have always paid some amount to send letters and packages, or to do business. But the costs were kept low as a policy. Another thought came to me: the town mentioned isn't far away from us. Looks like the trend of abandoning rural populations is coming closer.

I just finished a simple seasonal arrangement in a smiley vase. I should have gone looking for my wire cutters but I managed with my heavy kitchen shears which will cut through bone. I also changed the wreath but that feels more like wishful thinking than reflecting the season. I really need to get the clutter in the What-not Room cleaned up--so I can clutter it up again remaking several wreaths.

Naked Capitalism has this critique, originally posted by Thomas Neuburger at God's Spies, of the COP 28 meetings. Does anyone remember the old saying about the fox gaining control of the hen house?

Stray thought: When the Former Guy threatened to withdraw, unilaterally, from Nato, I thought his threat would lead our European allies to re-evaluate the stability and value of its alliance with the US. I wasn't surprised when new stories reported that they were doing just that. I wonder if the impasse in DC over funding for Ukraine's war, which Biden did a masterful job of persuading the EU into supporting, will further that process.

Andrew Bacevich has a new post on Tomdispatch concerning the Israeli-Hamas war. I almost wrote Palestinian instead of Hamas because it feels more like a war against Palestinians considering the official war in Gaza is being pursued by the IDF at the same time an unofficial war perpetrated by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank. A couple of points come to my mind. First, any claim the US might have had (ephemeral, at best) to being an "honest broker" in the matter is really gone. Second, the "rules based order" Biden has been trying to shore up after the knocks it took after The Former Guy tried his best to dismantle it, has probably been sunk. I think we will miss it. Third, US actions have been largely unilateral in spite of the efforts to discuss the situation with local powers. In the back of my mind is the question: how soon do we become more deeply involved? And what will be the blowback? Fourth, everyone from our government to a sizable portion of our citizenry, to friends and frenemies abroad are trying to get someone, anyone, US, UN to get Israel to stop the bombardment. They are all whistling past the graveyard because no one really has that kind of power or influence anymore. If anyone ever really did.