June 28

 Looks like we will have another cloudy, relatively cool, and rainy day. Mom mentioned a couple of days ago, while we watched the reports of the flooding in S. Dakota, southwestern Minnesota, and Iowa, that she was glad we live where we do. The truly bad weather keeps skirting us. The only kind of weather disaster I worry about involves winds--either straight line or cyclonic. We don't live near a river or lake that might flood nor near a coast which might experience a hurricane. Fire is always possible but not the kind that plagues so much of the west. Earthquake is also possible. But wind is another category of risk here especially. Tornado alley is shifting and taking in more of the Midwest. We had only one I can remember from my childhood til I left for Navy boot camp at 19. At that time we lived about 50 miles west of where Mom and I live now. That had minimal damage. But over the last few years several have hit in places all around us doing more significant damage as well as one major derecho event. 

I had another of my "stray thoughts" lately when news of the severe weather events came close to other stories of migrant "crises" here and abroad: just wait until we have massive internal migration along with migration from foreign countries. Think that isn't likely? California, Florida and other states have already dealt with insurance companies withdrawing from those markets leaving homeowners without insurance unless they can qualify for state sponsored insurance. I haven't seen any data on how many people who have been flooded our or burned out of their homes have had to leave their areas because the proceeds of insurance payouts (if they had insurance) didn't provide any way to afford housing in or near their area. I saw several reports of homeowners who were wiped out in Hurricane Ian who couldn't rebuild and were facing the probability of moving out of the area. The only things sustaining the housing industry were affordable loans and insurance which mortgage providers demanded. And the housing/construction industry has been a significant part of the economy since the GIs came home from WWII.

We didn't watch the debate last night. Mom had already fallen asleep in there recliner and I cut out in the middle of Biden's answer to the first question. Both men looked incredibly old and tired. Biden's croak and Trump's scowl seemed to portend a bad night and according to the news coverage this morning it was indeed a disaster. Biden's team says he has a cold and, given my own experiences with colds throughout my life, I can accept the symptoms would have been debilitating. I will give him time to prove (or disprove) it was a one-off. Trump's scowl indicated that he was his usual whiney, self-centered, lying self. Given a choice between an elderly man who lies as easily as he breaths, has no moral values, and is a convicted felon who has also been judged responsible for sexual assault and defaming his victim or an elderly man who has a bad night but from all accounts is mentally sharp and has rock solid values--I will take the latter any day. Oh, and a note to Mr. Trump: you aren't running against Hunter Biden though I can understand your confusion.(sarcasm alert.) You have confused Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi (excusable I guess since the first names begin with N) and at several points in the last electoral campaign you thought confused Joe Biden with Barak Obama (vice-president/president; potato-potahto).