August 29

 Good morning on what look like a nice sunny day--at least for now. The temps are predicted to reach the high 80s. Unfortunately, we do have to go out in it for a medical appointment. But I don't think I have to water plants after the soaking they got a day ago. The weather people think we have a good shot for more thundershowers tomorrow.

I found this article on Medium which reminds me of something I read about forty years ago in a book on the history of technology. The author wrote the purpose of technology (broadly defined) is to render processes invisible. His example involved modern electric lighting. The consumer merely flips a switch and gets light. What is hidden is the whole complex of processes which makes that happen: the wires (and the whole industrial line of production from digging the ore to the smelting to the forming of the wire to the packaging to the distribution centers to the installation), the light bulbs (similar chain from materials to production to sale to final placement), the transportation (map out the supply chains involved for your self). All except the final flipping of the switch and light are hidden from the consumer. Out of sight, out of mind. What the Medium article focuses on is the chain which takes the waste "away" from us and our vision.

Is my memory faulty or are these  stories becoming more frequent and more costly? Just to check I found this site that lists major incidents targeting governments, defense and finance industries, and/or causing losses of more than $1million. It may be time to go to a lower tech backup which can't be hacked. And we have to remember that our computerized systems aren't vulnerable just to malicious people. Weather and accidents can also totally interrupt our digital lives.

August 27, 28

We have a series of very warm days continuing. They started over the weekend with high 80s. Today is nearing 90F and a couple of more are in store. It will cool down, the weather people say, by Labor Day. By then we will be saying goodbye to August and hello to September.

We had an appointment yesterday so I didn't get much reading and no posting done. Right now the political news is largely the "same old-same old" and it is very old. I remember a comment someone (I can't remember who) made about the difference between "predicaments" and "problems." Problems have solutions but predicaments don't. Right now we have continuing predicaments--in Ukraine, in Gaza, in our relations with Russia and China, an economy which has tilted more towards the already obscenely wealthy. And we have contending parties on all of the various sides (there aren't simply two sides) which have made finding a consensus on what actions to take difficult.

I did make some progress on a crochet piece I started a week or so ago. I had to pull it all out and start again because I didn't get the original count right. I seemed to make good progress on it only to find that I miscounted somewhere along the way and had to take out all but the first three rows. I am thoroughly amazed and disgusted with my inability to count single digits consistently. I now count two or three times the next set of stitches and, when I have a long stretch of the same pattern, use safety pins to mark my stitches. Making progress on the last of a set of pillow cases was much easier.

28************************************************************************************

We had a very hard thunderstorm move through last night. Still too early to see if anything in the gardens was damaged. I have several summer plants that are pretty much done for the year. I will replace them with mums for the fall. And I am beginning a list of plants I won't plant next year for various reasons. Cosmos--I planted these simply because I had an empty large pot and Mom got a packet of free seeds in a charity pleading for donations. Bee balm/monarda--I want to find a different plant to feed bees. I have planted this one for several years but it is time for a different plant. Dahlia--in the last couple of years they have suffered from powdery mildew so it is time to consider more resistant plants. Mints--I used to plant mints to harvest for tea but kept putting them in to attract bees. Valerian--just time for a change.

Stray Thought: the Harris/Walz bus tour in southeastern Georgia revives a good strategy. I have long thought neither party has addressed the needs of people living in rural areas. Ever since, and before, Earl Butz (then Secretary of Agriculture) told farmers they had to "get big or get out" the only rural interests Washington politicians paid any attention to was industrial agriculture. Going out and meeting people in small towns is a good start.

Another Stray Thought: a passage in Liz Cheney's OATH AND HONOR ties into that first stray thought. She described talking to two of her Wyoming constituents who were both ranchers during the turmoil of December when the Electoral College was preparing to meet. Both mentioned as their first comment that Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts had a child-sex ring running in his basement. She disabused them and then went on to their other concerns over how and under what terms the Biden administration would administer the land and resources in Wyoming the federal government controls. The constituents voted Republican because they viewed Republican administrations as friendly toward their economic interests while the Democrats were more likely to push economic or environmental measures that would hit them very hard in the pocket book. I wonder how many Democrats actually went out to talk to such voters.

August 25

 The Democratic Convention was entertaining but I am glad it is over. Note that I didn't watch ANY of the Republican Convention. I only saw snippets the news channel I usually watch put up to contrast to what the Democrats did. I gave some observations elsewhere. I will make observations every now and again. For instance, the complaints from Republicans and Republican "adjacent" pundits that Harris isn't giving interviews with reporters--especially "conservative" pundits and outlets. Their biases are showing. I have noticed that Trump isn't giving interviews except to sympathetic interviewers. Second instance: conservative complaints that Harris isn't putting out policy statements. Again that largely shows their biases. The Democratic policy statements are actually more comprehensive than anything the Trump people are putting out--when they aren't trying to back away from unpopular statements as fast as they can.

An interesting report, or rather a snippet of a report, indicated that the Republicans have shifted money away from the 'ground game,' from knocking on doors or making calls. They have decided to put their resources toward lawyers. Being somewhat cynical and suspicious I conclude that they have decided to contest the election in the courts. They don't care what the election results will be, or they suspect it will go against them, and want the courts to erase the results and give the "victory" to Trump. The late Maya Angelou supposedly said that when someone tells you (or shows you) who they are--believe them. Trump bleated that the 2016 election was going to be stollen almost as soon he stepped off his escalator and continued through the entire campaign. He won that one thanks to the Electoral College. But he claimed that he actually won the popular count as well thought all the evidence said otherwise. He made the same claims during the 2020 campaign and when he lost both the Electoral College and the popular count launched more than 60 lawsuits all of which failed to change the outcome. I won't comment on January 6 since it is still in the courts but I did notice that he couldn't muster the courtesy to attend the Biden inauguration. Our history of "peaceful transfer of power" took a bit of a knock. We are seeing the third repeat of the same tired old Trump story and it isn't wearing well. 

August 20

 Sunny day but filled with a couple of errands. Mom had an appointment to get her hearing aids adjusted which went smoothly. We think the batteries are failing so they are shipping them back to the factory for servicing and gave us a pair of loaners to carry us over to when hers comes back. That went smoothly but the other had a couple of glitches. She has an appointment next week with the doctor that handles her thyroid problem but she needed to get blood work done first. We couldn't find the order so we went over to the office to get a copy but things have changed in the last six months. It took us two trips over and a phone call to get it done. New systems are always a pain in the butt. But that errand was done--finally.

We have watched the Democratic Convention. I have usually don't watch such spectacles; they are just so boring. Not this one. Claire McCaskill described the Republican Convention as a "testosterone driven grievance machine." The Democrats actually produced a fun show. I didn't watch it all--way too long past our bed time. But the early part was entertaining.

Stray thought: I saw a headline today claiming that "Joe Biden is not a hero." I didn't read the post so I don't know what the author was arguing but I could argue that his title is wrong. Biden obviously, from every story I have seen, believed he could pull out a win but he stepped aside because too many people in his party didn't share his belief. We'll never know who was right whether Harris wins or not. One thing was obvious: very few whether Democrat, Republican, or Other, had any enthusiasm for a rematch between two geriatric candidates. But Biden put aside his own estimates of his chances to win, his belief that he could prevent a second Trump presidency, and even his own ambition for a second term to unite his party for the good of his country. That qualifies as heroic in my mind.

Second Stray Thought: my brother came for a visit Saturday and, as usual, the talk turned to politics. He believes that Harris and Walz are the most far left candidates ever. I don't see that. Everything they have said is entirely in line with almost all Democrat programs in history. They scare the hell out of him. I told him I didn't see anything scary about Harris/Walz but Trump scares me. "Trump is an idiot." he replied. I answered that I am not afraid of Trump. I am scared shitless by the bigoted authoritarians around him. Who will be the powers behind the throne? I asked. I think a lot of people share his fears. At least he recognizes Trump's failings which he never did before.

Third Stray Thought: several years I read a short article which started with an autobiographical sketch. I don't remember who wrote it now but he was an immigrant from some Eastern European country that had not too many years before tried to break from the Soviet Union only to be crushed when the Soviet tanks rolled in. He lived in a neighborhood in which a large number of fellow emigres from the same country lived. They had to deal with a landlord from hell who refused to do routine maintenance, arrange garbage pick up or do anything besides collect the rent. After a few months he tried to get his fellow inmates to unite and arrange for their own garbage pick-up. They all refused screaming "COMMUNISM." I am hearing that term thrown at Democrats more frequently and especially at Harris/Walz. But I have to ask where the line is between true communism and collective action to better your own lives?

August 15

Rain today with possible thunderstorms later. We have an errand so I hope anything severe holds off for a few hours more.

Stray thought: the news/talk show hosts we often watch have been covering segments of Project 2025 and the training "films" the Heritage has put out for civil service hopefuls. One was somewhat Orwellian. The snippets featured speakers urging the potential appointees to be sure to "erase" certain words and terms including "climate change," and "diversity, equity, and inclusion." They seemed to think that simply eliminating the terms would somehow eliminate the realities behind the terms. Erasing references to climate change won't somehow, magically erase the effects. Erasing terms that highlight the inequities and inequality in our society and economy won't change the fact that the U.S. is a very unequal society with little social or economic mobility. The Republican ostrich wants to bury its head and pretend nothing is wrong.

Stray though #2: one of the bloggers posted a headline that cited polls which suggest that moves to cut arms sales to Israel and a cease fire in Gaza would help Democrats win voters in some of the battleground states where sentiment strongly opposes Israel's actions in Gaza. Perhaps, but I don't expect any such move by the Biden Administration. First, the relationship with Israel is a "legacy" relationship some 70 years old. Changing such a relationship is very difficult because too much emotional and political capital is invested in sustaining it. Second, Pro-Palestinian leaning voters might come over to the Democrats but there is likely a sizable segment of both parties who would be very unhappy and might go the other way. Third, the other component of the equation--the cease fire--is exceedingly unlikely. There is an old saying that it takes two to make peace but only one to make war and at the moment we don't have any side wanting peace. I don't remember how many times Netanyahu has balked at agreements which incorporated ALL of the demands Israel made and made new demands on top of the old ones. The new Hamas leader is Yahya Sinwar who was the mastermind of the October attack and who has been quoted saying that even 100,000 Palestinian death would not be too high a price to pay to win. The cited poll was a waste of pollsters' time and of the time of anyone who might read it. Wishful thinking.

August 13

 Really early here--not yet 5a.m. Spent the weekend watching the last of the Olympics, reading and doing needlework. Made good progress on two embroidery pieces including the quilted cross-stitch piece I complained about last time and a pillowcase. I had to switch off a bit because the cross-stitch puts a lot of strain on my fingers getting the needle through between the layers so the stitches won't show on the back. I also started a new crochet piece and had to restart it because the pattern wasn't working out the way it should.

I am not ignoring the news so much as limiting how much I view. Reading various media sites is far more interesting and informative. For instance this piece on CBS concerning a new round of cost-cutting measures at colleges and universities (large and small) which includes not only majors but entire departments. What the article lacks an historical perspective. The cost cutting and closing of smaller/weaker institutions didn't suddenly start this year. I remember forty years ago when the college I attended then cut an award winning and globally respected major in scientific illustration to find money to start a program in molecular biology which would have to compete with a neighboring university's program which included a professor who just won a Nobel Prize. New computer aided design technology was making the scientific illustration program obsolete but sinking money into a new endeavor which tried to duplicate a highly respected program at a nearby institution. I have seen several rounds of program cuts over the years. This one may be more severe but it isn't exactly new.

I also noticed that CBS gave a lot of interesting details but not a lot of analysis of what is driving the woes of higher education. It barely mentions the declining numbers of the traditional audience for the services of colleges/universities. The article mentions the skepticism of the gen-Alpha cohort concerning the utility of higher education given the costs and that many companies aren't looking at a BA as the entry token any more. Though the author then gives the stock argument about how much better college graduates do in the job market which I have always thought were cherry picked to produce a result that would convince young people to go to college. An illustration of the debate over education concerns my grand-nephews--my brother's grand sons. The older boy is beginning his junior at a regional in-state college pursuing a major that fits with his longer range career goals while doing summer internships in his chosen field. He will graduate without debt and probably a job. The young boy is beginning his junior year in high school enrolled in a machinist's apprentice program in addition to regular courses. He never like school much and enjoyed working with his hands. The program fits his interests perfectly. When he graduates he already has an industry run apprenticeship lined up. Not everyone needs college.

For more than a year Germany has been plagued by a gang that blows up ATMs and then scoops up the cash before fleeing. They are trying to combat the problem by pushing people to abandon cash and removing ATMs. The authorities in neighboring Belgium did just that and made the operation unprofitable to the gangs. I wonder if that will lead to an escalation of "jugging" which has spiked in the U.S. according to some news stories like this one. 

August 8, 9

 Another sunny day and the forecast, as of this morning, is for several more. I checked the patio pots and they are moist enough I should not have to water til tomorrow. I did see a couple I should add soil to but that will wait til tomorrow also. I spent about three hours working on a cross-stitch piece this morning which drove me to swearing. I like the pattern but I hate that it is pre-quilted. When I bought the set of pre-quilted place mats and matching napkins I forgot how much I hated the last pre-quilted piece I did thirty, maybe forty, years ago. After this mornings' bit of work I am only about three inches from finishing the first place mat. I will change how I do the rest of them to make things easier on both my fingers and my eyes. Hopefully I will finish the rest before the end of the year. The napkins are already done--they aren't quilted.

I just skimmed an article that claims that the U.S. is experiencing a rise in shoplifting. I am skeptical. The story follows the story line of the last pearl-clutching hysterical stories from a couple of years ago: criminal gangs hitting stores, post-covid return to pre-covid theft levels, stores facing such an extreme loss that they might have to close stores, failure of prosecutors to vigorously pursue the perpetrators, judges giving light sentences. The last time the whole narrative imploded after examinations of the "evidence" showed it was totally unreliable. The story today didn't have a date so I can't even be sure if it isn't an example of how the internet keeps various vampire stories alive.

I remember an article from, maybe, forty years ago about the effect of the news on how viewers/readers perceive the threat of crime. Basically, even people who never experienced a crime and who lived well away from where the described crimes were committed experienced heightened fear of being victimized by crime. There is an old saying that in news "If it bleeds, it leads." With the rise of the internet we also have the massive replication and re-transmission of the stories. Suddenly a single event becomes ten, or more.

09**********************************************************************************

Another sunny day and again cool enough to open windows and the patio storm door. I got all the pots watered. All the plants are doing pretty well. I just snipped off some of the spent blooms. I grow herbs mainly for the bees and for the smell in the garden. I don't dry them for my use any more but I do like providing something for the bees. A few need a bit of fertilizer and a couple of others will probably do well enough when I add potting mix to them to bring the soil level up again. I finished that place mat I worked on yesterday and started another. One down and three to go along with the last napkin

Robert Reich asks a question I have asked since the end of Trump's term and throughout this latest run for the presidency: why is the media ignoring Trumps dementia? EVERY media outlet mentioned every verbal slip, every evidence of forgetfulness, every sign of physical frailty Biden showed but most ignored Trump's increasing incoherence, increasing inability to string two thoughts together, increasing viciousness. 

August 7

 Sunny morning. The Weather Channel has changed its forecast for us. They had predicted three days of rain but that has been replaced with sun and mild temps right around 80°. The gardens are looking somewhat like the late season jungle I usually expect. I should get out and cut some of them back. I got ahead of the diplodenias and have them started up trellises. They are blooming nicely. I just looked up information on asiatic lilies because mine have about filled up their container and I need dig them up to separate bulbs for replanting in the fall. They aren't ready yet quite yet. 

Well, Harris finally made her choice of running mate: Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota. I will make a couple of observations. First, the difference between the rally last night which introduced Walz and a Trump rally was amazing. No whining, no self pity, no disparaging of minorities, immigrants, or women. But there was a lot of joy which was refreshing. That has been a quality missing from the Democratic Party since the end of the Obama administration. Second, it was also refreshing to see candidates proposing something other than rounding up and deporting a bunch of people they don't like. Or accusing those people of taking "black" jobs. Third, if I were a betting person I would bet that we won't see any "debates" this time around. Trump has already pulled out of the originally scheduled debate insisting on a "friendly" venue with "sympathetic" moderators. He promises to be on Fox while Harris has insisted she will be at the CBS debate Trump originally agreed to. Too bad. He obviously doesn't want to face an opponent with more functioning brain cells than he has. Fourth, my favorite line was when Walz told the audience that the party that used to proclaim its love of freedom(Republicans) wants the government to be free to invade our doctors' offices and even wants to outlaw IVF, the procedure that allowed Walz and his wife to have their children. He then said what I have said before: on issues like abortion or IVF or what have you, if you don't approve then don't do what ever it is you don't approve of. He then said that in Minnesota they had a rule for that: MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS. 

August 3

 It looks, for now, like a sunny day. I don't think the rain showers they predicted came through so I will absolutely have to water plants today. I am still ignoring most of the political speculations--I can't call it news--because it is irritating, boring, and, for the most p2art, meaningless. Even Mom is reaching the end of her patience with the way the commercials interrupt what she is interested in watching. Various pundits used to tell us that free wasn't really free: if it is "free" you are the commodity being sold. Well, it isn't really free if you are paying the cable, satellite, etc., bill. But we are still being sold. I prefer to read my news on-line where I can ignore the ads, ignore the articles I am not interested in, skim some for what is interesting and read more thoroughly those that are more interesting.

John Feffer has an interesting piece on Tomdispatch about the backlash against globalism. He makes a point that most writers miss: anti-globalism isn't a homogeneous movement; it has many moving parts. The political, economic, social, cultural strands are interwoven in a complex tapestry. I would add there is a strain that desperately looks back to an imagined "golden age:" when men were men and women tended the home and kids, when white men set the agenda and others tried to live with it, when China was the center of the universe, when Russia was a respected power in the world. Choose your own glory days. That is the power behind what Feffer calls the "sovereignistas."

Richard Haas also has a good post this morning. He notes a fact that seems to elude all of the enthusiastic pundits who crow about the U.S. as the most "powerful" nation in the world. They forget that power doesn't always mean influence. We have entered an era where we can't "lay down the law" and expect all the leaders of other countries to fall into line. That is complicating our relations with "friend" (Israel for example) and "foe" (see Venezuela and Maduro) alike.

August 1

 Welcome to August. Only ninety-some days til the election and it can't come soon enough though I don't expect the political temperature to break no matter who wins. We have had a couple of nice quiet days because we have left the TV off. It is becoming less and less useful. What I can tolerate Mom finds boring and she starts insisting that there MUST be something else. I read off what is on the schedule to prove there really isn't anything better. The old joke about 500 channels and nothing to watch is still absolutely right. Most of what she can tolerate if find downright irritating. Especially the politics.

We had to drive about 50 miles to a doctor's appointment. Luckily we left in plenty of time. It is construction season here and we had to slow down through several sections. The map programs were an irritation because they kept indicating the Toll Road. We have never liked driving that route west and now the powers that be have removed the last of the cash lanes. You have to have some kind of account that automatically scans your license and debits you. We don't do that kind of thing. I found another route after a bit of searching that we were somewhat familiar with. The one with construction well underway.

Part of that route took us through part of Gary just south of the Northwest campus of Indiana University. That is an area I remember well from my first successful stint in higher education in the mid-1970s. Then it was still a busy commercial area with a variety of stores, restaurants and a couple of bars. NOT ANYMORE. Even the pharmacy that had been there seemingly forever has closed. We could tell when we entered Gary. The streets were horrible--even the main street we were on. Mom commented that Gary simply hadn't got to it yet. I told her I think the situation is worse than that. I don't think Gary has the money for the maintenance. Not only were the streets in critically bad shape but most of the traffic lights that worked fifty years ago weren't functioning and haven't been for some time. They hadn't been removed. Stop signs were simply added in front of them. I think I described a similar scene a few blocks south last year when we were trying to get home from visiting my brother.

Gary hasn't been able to attract new industries to replace the steel and refining that had made the city prosperous. Although several areas around Gary looked prosperous and much of it newly built up, most of the business appeared to be in the medical industry. A hospital we both knew has merged with a national chain that has also invaded our area. It has also expanded massively. Instead of strip malls of commercial outlets we saw strip malls of doctor's offices with a scattering of restaurants to serve the office and doctors' staffs.

I wonder if fifty years from now these areas will be as blighted as Gary. The major driver of medical expansion has been the aging of my generation--the Baby Boom. As we drove the expansion of baby and young children's merchandise, the growth of school expansion at all levels from pre-school through university, the growth off housing from starter homes to McMansions, we are now driving health care for an aging population. But the growth was followed by a crash. And so many areas are the modern equivalent of a "company town." As the company went so went the town.