January 16

 Good morning. It is still cold and we can really tell it because of how often our furnace turns on. The birds quickly realized I had filled the feeder. The feeder has six perches and at least five of them were occupied most of the time while several other birds sat on the fence waiting for an opening. I don't know why none tried to take the one empty place. The cats, of course, were mewing at the door wanting so much to get out among the "chew toys." 

Watching the postmortem on the Iowa caucus. Nothing much added to the commentary in real time last night.

Stray thought #1--the commentators said that those who were hoping an alternative to Trump (I guess I will have to give up "The Former Guy" because he may be The Future Guy) were disappointed. Well, I have to wonder why because none of the candidates were true alternatives. Christi dropped out and Haley is simply Trump with heels. They all, even Christi, were in the same philosophical bucket.

Stray thought #2--one of the reporters said that a couple (no idea how many) of voters claimed that they voted for Trump because he was the one who would return THEIR country, the country God has given them, to their control. I would be shocked at this if I hadn't read enough history to see it as the latest iteration of the "City on a hill" notion expressed by Puritan Preachers which later morphed into the American civil religion incorporated in Manifest Destiny and into Madelynn Albright's concept of America as the "indispensable nation" in world affairs. Those evangelicals want to return to a country (and a world) where God's people call the tune and everyone else dances to it.

Stray thought #3--I remember a scene in the Dune series movie "The Children of Dune" where Alia, ruling as regent for her brother's minor twins, becomes more and more repressive in the face of growing opposition to her government. The voice over tells us she is "unable to recognize the true forces arrayed against her" and so responds with increasing political violence. I see a parallel between Alia and our politicians who fail to see that our local problems are local manifestations of global problems. Look at any of the events here (migration, labor unrest, economic problems, environmental crises, etc.) and you see similar occurrences world wide. We have a globalized society. The competing demonstrations for and against Israel or the Palestinians demonstrate that. Vladimir Putin has tried, with some success, to characterize his war in Ukraine as one of a virtuous Russian conservative society resisting a decadent West. The Houthis buy sending drones and missiles against ships flagged in, owned by, or shipping to Europeans and Israelis are doing the same in solidarity with the Palestinians. Like Alia our politicians can't see the real forces arrayed against them.

More frequently over the last couple of decades I have found that new technology simply isn't convenient, or reliable. I recently got a "smart" phone and the only thing I like about it is I have it set up so I can access my bank account easily--thanks to a very nice, patient, young teller. Next week I plan to get a new flip phone on a new number. We never liked the self check outs in the stores that have put them in. We usually have far more items than the stores want to pass through those stands and we like to talk to the cashiers. This article on BBC indicates that the technology hasn't delivered on any of its promises and some retailers are removing some if not all of them.

One good outcome from the Iowa Caucus is that one of the Trump clones has suspended his campaign. Good bye, Vevek Ramaswamy, we hardly knew you and didn't really want to.