May 20

 Another nice sunny day and the forecasts have changed (what a surprise) to predict more sun and less rain. I checked the plants this morning and none require water. All of the transplants are thriving so far. We aren't getting more til next week. I still have, I think, ten pots to fill. I have some old sunflower seeds I will try in three areas. I hope they are still viable. And I have some chives seeds for smaller pots. I wonder what else in my collection might be viable.

Doomberg published this item today which doesn't surprise me and shouldn't have surprised any in our government. Our government and industries spent thirty or so years promoting globalism thinking that strengthening the ties with adversaries would make them more like us. They sounded a lot like Prof. Higgins in My Fair Lady lamenting that women weren't more like men. Substitute China or Russia for women and the U.S. (and Europe) for men and the sentiment is the same. Lately, however, Russia and China (and Israel, Iran, India and others) are demonstrating the fallacies of the argument. Globalism existed before it became an ideology and will exist after the ideology dies but in a much more limited way.

The BBC has a long report on TV detailing a 7-year investigation into a scandal involving patients infected with HIV and Hepatitis C through tainted blood products. Today's report doesn't say as one I saw yesterday that the source of those products was the U.S. Bottom line: people told by doctors they were receiving the best treatment were failed by the entire system supposedly designed to help them--government, the medical establishment, and regulators. On both sides of the Atlantic. I wonder how many over here were similarly infected. I remember stories back in the 1980s about babies given routine transfusions without any specific diagnosis. One of the reporters aid that the British public is increasingly skeptical of the governmental, medical and regulatory establishment as we are over here.

Green Prophet describes an interesting (and ancient) strategy for maintaining a livable temperature in buildings without modern refrigeration. I can think of some areas in this country where it might be useful.

Bill Astore described our political system well: burlesque. Others might have used the phrase "bread and circuses." I often thought (and said) that our two party system is an illusion. We really have one with two wings that represent financial and industrial interests. One wing gives lip service to "ordinary people" but, when push comes to shove, they almost always cater to the wealthy. I recently read a piece by Andrew Bacevich in his collection of essays ON SHEDDING AN OBSOLETE PAST in which he describes our two parties as joint communicants in the "Church of America the Redeemer." Members of the Church believe that America is the "shining city on the hill," the model for the world sent to bring the world to the light of democracy and capitalism. And where ever we carry that message the major beneficiaries are our industries (especially armaments) and financial institutions. Why else do you think our government continues to support Israel in spite of the brutal attack on Gaza and the cruel repression of Palestinians in the West Bank coupled with the failure to crack down on illegal settlements?