Welcome to February. Tomorrow is Groundhog Day. During the back-and-forth on the Weather Channel on whether people hoped Phil sees his shadow or not one person had the situation right on. She remarked that it didn't matter because the seasons are changing so much. Whether we have six more weeks of winter or not it simply isn't the kind of winter we were used to. It is sunny right now with temps just below 40.
Bill Astore has a good criticism of the political campaign that appears to be shaping up. As he notes it is devoid of most of the issues that really concern ordinary people. The only truly domestic issue he mentions in the Biden-Trump matchup is abortion. Astore is one who is fed up with the choices between bad and worse, and I consider Trump to be worse. I can agree that we need a better foreign policy that doesn't overwhelmingly depend on military aid to whom ever and our own military actions. But I also don't see any real alternatives to the two major choices. Other commentators have noted that we desperately need two functioning and responsible political parties and at the moment we have one (sort of), and it is not the Republicans. I said "sort of" because both parties are beholden to different segments of the ultra wealthy and the financial industry.
I had to do some Googling because I simply couldn't believe ANYONE could be so stupid as to propose a resurrection of dueling. Evidently, some Republicans in the Missouri senate are so upset by the level of vitriol and want to restore a sense of decorum and honor that they floated the notion. As this Guardian article notes the proposal is still just in the initial stages and isn't anywhere near implementation. Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised since Missouri is one of the several Republican controlled states that are trying to erase the last 124 years by eliminating much child labor law and modifying the age at which children can leave school to enter the labor market.
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