September 11

 Another hazy day but I don't think we will get rain. I will have to water plants tomorrow. Otherwise everything is doing well. I will have to find the insecticidal soap because one of the diplodenia has some aphids. I haven't had many problems with pests over the last few years.

We started watching the debate but turned it off after about half an hour. I think Trump lost in the first few moments as they walked onto the stage. Harris promptly walked straight over to Trump (in front of his podium) to shake hands. She established her dominance right off--as one of the commentators said this morning she was "the alpha female." And he clearly was not alpha anything. That was clear during the first question. He rambled; she answered clearly. He looked old, tired, and confused; she was alert, active, and quick witted. During the last debate he benefitted by being the most alert of the two old men on stage. This time he was the only old man on stage and it wasn't a good look for him. Harris suggested more debates and Trump said he would like a "friendlier" news outfit (FOX) and "friendlier" questioners (Hannity or Ingraham for example). For "friendlier" we can read "more obsequious."

Stray thought: I wonder what difference the debate will make. Harris' supporters think she performed very well and Trump performed about as well as Biden did without the excuse of illness. Trump supporters will try to drag up reasons why Harris failed and Trump showed his usual mastery. How many uncommitted voters are really out there?

Another stray thought on another topic: I usually ignore the commemorations of the 9/11 attacks. Today I couldn't because it was intertwined with the debate commentary. As I watched I the scene in THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING came to mind. Bilbo was writing about Hobbits in his journal and ended with the observation "It is no small thing to celebrate an ordinary life." These commemorations celebrate almost 3000 ordinary lives and a few extraordinary lives (the passengers on Flight 93). That deserves remembrance.

Rebecca Gordon has a good article on retirement. Not advice about how to prepare but about the recent complaints that too many older people aren't retiring and blocking the paths to career advancement for younger workers. As she points out large segments of the older population don't retire because they aren't financially able to do so. Not everyone is in the enviable position to have had a career that provided sufficient income for the them to put aside enough money to live on. Not everyone had a job with an employer who provided a pension plan (or enough income of the worker to pay into the plan). Not everyone were members of a union with an adequately funded pension plan. And Gordon didn't mention a situation I have read about over the last few years involving the number of state pension funds that are drastically underfunded.