July 23

 We are almost done with July. Damn how fast the year has passed. I had a post ready but decided not to publish it. Too much of the frustration I have with politics came out and I decided not to inflict that on anyone else. I did get out and watered everything deeply but I should do it again today. We aren't expecting much precipitation and the plants are big enough to suck up the water in the containers quickly. Most of the herbs are blooming. I am leaving them for the bees. 

I had noticed that some of the interviewees on the news reports who were asked about Kamala Harris' campaign for the Democratic nomination and possible (probably?) campaign for the presidency were skeptical that our electorate is ready for a female president. I keep thinking that the U.K. has had three female Prime Ministers. And Germany had Angela Merkel as Chancellor for about two decades. And Swedish women occupied all of the major government posts for one term. But then my mom said she really can't see Harris as president. That I think is the problem--we haven't seen it before and can't see it now. Instead, it is easier to see an 80-year-old man with serious character deficiencies and cognitive problems, who has been convicted of sexual assault and fraud in the office he tried so hard to steal to remain in power. Somewhere about forty years ago some friends and I, who were all either biology majors or minors, decided to form a school biology club. We were all women and were the drivers in this project but when I came to selecting officers all of them rejected the notion that one of us should be president or vice-president. They insisted that men should occupy those spots. Again, we had't seen women in those positions and therefore couldn't see it at that time. It really is time we start seeing with our imaginations.

To go onto something else--I watched the first disk of the Sandman season 1. I won't be watching the rest partly because mom really didn't like it at all. I thought it wasn't a bad film version but not really satisfying. So I re-read the first volume of the graphic novel by Neil Gaiman which is what formed the basis of the Netflix series. And that is why I won't be watching the rest of the TV series--I really prefer the comic. That isn't unusual. There are very few films based on novels, etc., that I think are as good as or, even more rarely, better than the original.

I just finished a book that should have been more interesting than it was: Nomad Century. The first half described what we might expect as large populations move because of changing climate conditions, especially across national borders. We are already seeing some of that. I remember when the Biden Administration soon after coming into office sent Kamala Harris to talk to Mexican and Central American presidents hoping to forge some arrangement to stem the migrants going through Mexico and ending up at our border. I didn't expect much and she didn't accomplish much. Migration is an intractable problem because the drought is compounded by gangs which are compounded by government and oligarch affiliated death squads. Similar conditions set off the migrations from Africa into Europe which continue. I wasn't very satisfied with the second half where the author went on far too long on what she thought should be done. Most of those prescriptions would require far more national and international cooperation than is likely at this time. I have read a number of stories lately of political movements definitely critical of "green" measures.