January 17

 Sunny today and a bit warm. Highs have been around 40F.  Most of the snow on the south facing areas has melted. We are watching the Mummy series--the originals with Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney staring. What we aren't watching are the nominees' testimony. I really don't need to see the blow by blow show for two reasons: first, most of the nominees have been interviewed or have spoken at rallies or interviews and I expect them to be evasive, or combative, or give answers that Trump would like; second, I don't really have any say--the matter is now in the hands of Trump and the Senate.

I decide to start another Tunisian stitch lap blanket. It took a bit because I wanted to start with a foundation single crochet which I hadn't done before. The fillet crochet doily called for using a foundation triple crochet to add stitches to the pattern at certain points and I had read that one of the ways you can prevent the Tunisian stitch piece from rolling up as it is worked is to used the foundation stitch. I thought I would give it a try. It took a bit to get the pattern I wanted going but it is progressing well now. It will be another scrap buster piece using the left overs from previous projects.

So here is what I am reading now:

Ezra Klein posted an interesting piece titled "TRUMP 2.0 AND THE RETURN OF 'COURT POLITICS.' He makes some interesting points. I have also been reading a history of France and just got through the sections covering the period from Louis XIV (The Sun King) through The Revolution. Some of it sounds very much like what Trump 1.0 was like and might be much like what we can expect from Trump 2.0. Klein's argument leads into an interview which I didn't read.

Here is a good article the title of which notes "THE TECH OLIGARCHY HAS BEEN HERE FOR YEARS."  As each new technology has appeared a new oligarchy has formed around it. At certain points in history the politicians have alternately fostered those oligarchs and have regulated them. Think of the history of Standard Oil or of AT&T. Think of the banking regulations that came out of the financial crash leading to the Great Depression.