September 13

It is still too early to see what is happening outside. Last weather I saw predicted sunny and dry. We'll see.

Found this item this morning. Some people can't accept the notion of climate change but if insurance companies and animals do perhaps we should also. I have seen articles for some time about animals changing their behavior, diets, and ranges. I remember an example from a history of the industrial revolution in England involving the color shift in moths in the industrial cities in the mid 1800s.  They originally displayed a whiteish color that blended with the trees and over a couple of decades they changed to a sooty gray because it blended in better with the soot covered trees. It didn't take long at all.

12 September--What we remember

I tried, and for the most part succeeded, in ignoring the 9/11 memorials though the TV was was super saturated with them. It was one of the handful of incidents I will always remember where I was and what I was doing as it happened. I was driving to morning classes and listening to the news on the radio. Normally it would have been music. When I got to my destination they had already put a TV outside the offices and people were crowded around it. That remained the situation for the rest of the day with people cycling in and out as they went to class or met other demands. I felt somewhat disconnected from the events and surprised by some of the reactions even months later. On woman who was finishing her program and was interviewing for jobs balked at going to work for a company whose offices were in a Chicago skyscraper. Another didn't want to go into Chicago at all she was so afraid of another attack. I didn't share that fear which seemed so pervasive and I wasn't enthusiastic about rushing into either Iraq or Afghanistan. And I became less enthusiastic as time passed and more details were revealed and much of the "evidence" supporting the wars turned out to be utterly fraudulent.

I always thought a "war on terror" was ridiculous like so many other so-called wars over my lifetime. Terror had no territory for us to conquer. Just as poverty had no territory and communism has no territory. There were people who were poor or who believed in communism or used terror to achieve their political ends but those people could be anywhere. Ideas, strategies, and conditions have no borders. We invaded Afghanistan because its Taliban government allowed Al Qaida to set up shop there but didn't do much about Pakistan even though Osama bin Laden found refuge in the western part of the country and lived there for years before U.S. forces killed him in a raid that strained relations further with an allegedly allied sovereign country.

David Kaiser's latest post makes some astute observations on the impact of the "war on terror" on our government, defense industry, and society generally. Spoiler: none of it is good.

Now that President Biden has declared the end of the "forever wars' one would think we could reorder our financial priorities and scale back on the defense spending which already exceeds, if I remember rightly, the next ten big military spenders in the world. But, as Alfred McCoy at tomdispatch notes, the administration is proposing another almost $750billion for the Defense Department. That at the time when certain legislators are balking at a "human infrastructure" bill that comes in a $3.5 trillion for years which comes out to $350 billion per year--in other words half the Pentagon spending. Our Powers That Be are far more comfortable buying bombs and sexy high tech toy (many of which don't do what was promised) than make sure we have child care, elder care, medical care, and education for our citizens.

 9 September

Another nice cool day with more clouds than yesterday and a chance of showers. We noticed that the local Walgreens had their flu vaccines in stock when we stopped on our last shopping trip. We went in to get the shots today. It took a bit longer today than it did last year perhaps because we were so early in the season but also, I think because several people were signed up to get Covid shots. The store didn't have a general mask policy except for the small room where the shots were administered. They would have given us a throwaway but we always carry one (or more) of our own nowadays. 

I found this on TomDispatch today. Jane Braxton Little tells her story of evacuating as the Dixie Fire took out much of the old Gold Rush town of Greenville. She lost her office as that building and most of the downtown burned but her house survived. We are used to seeing news stories/pictures of refugees in other parts of the world. I guess we should get used to seeing our own people as refugees in our own land.

 8 September

It is another nice day today. Sun, dry, and mild temps. Yesterday was hot and muggy which warmed the house to the point where I decided to turn on the air. We did finally get some rain over night--enough so I don't have to water plants today. The clean up in Louisiana and other places hit by Ida even as more rain is predicted to hit those same places. I remember a remark by one of the anchors on one of the news programs talking about the costs of these storms. He has a friend who works as a risk analyst for an insurance company and said he doesn't do much of that any more--he is too busy writing checks to cover the insured damage. I remember reading several times that, whatever the politicians and others might say about climate change, the insurance companies are taking the threat seriously. It is costing them a lot of money.

Tom Engelhardt is back at TomDispatch after a two week holiday. As usual his post today encapsulates much of what I have been thinking as I watched the sloppy withdrawal from Afghanistan, the legislative games in Washington, the cruel legislation passed and signed into law in Texas which other red state governors are salivating to replicate, and so much else that would once have been unthinkable.

 September 3

Cool and bright today. Looks like it will be dry. I got out to do some trimming in the gardens and took out the dyers woodruff as well. I still want to get a handle on the roses and the chamomile. I put the marigolds in small pots in the wire holders on the fence. That gets them out of the way so I can more easily move things around. I say "more easily" because there is nothing easy about moving 5gal buckets full of dirt and plant.

Watching the news is painful and infuriating. The responses to the pull out in Afghanistan was bound to be messy and it was. The Republican are showing their boorish, self-serving, stupid partisanship. The only thing the want is back in power. The Democrats aren't quite as bad but they are letting their fixation on the perfect get in the way of getting the best out of the situation that can be gotten. We could have gotten out after we kicked the Taliban out, or after we killed bin Laden and had a legitimate claim to a victory. As it is we have a muddle--neither victory nor outright defeat--with a load of broken promises that probably could never have been kept. One thing I hope comes out is that we put a stake into that vampire ideology of "nation building."

I noticed that President Biden noted the toll the long mess in Afghanistan has taken on the 1% of our population who served there. Several commentators noted that all those advocating for continuation had no children in the military. That is the weakness of our current system. I think that all citizens should serve a three year tour of duty in the military (what ever service) when they turn 18, with a further three years in the reserves. No exemptions. If you are bound for college--wait til after your service. If you married young or had children young--you still serve. Women serve equally with the men.

Hurricane Ida did a job on Louisiana, Mississippi and all states between there and Maine. The best news our of New Orleans was that the levy system held but the electric grid is almost a total loss. It will take weeks to get that back and I wonder if parts of it will never be rebuilt. One of the news reporters asked one of the politicians why they didn't bury the electric lines after Katrina. Answer: too expensive. I wonder how expensive rebuilding the system to what it was before will be.

We have had a couple of new peeves lately. Over two days this week Mom received seven e-mails from politicians begging for gifts--and not a one is from our state or had declared for a national office. One was Ted "Cancun" Cruz. And no, he is not one of our senators. Then she got requests from charities she has already donated money to in the last month. She is getting rather tired of the constant pleas and is refusing to give any more. They used to be satisfied with a single yearly donation but now want monthly gifts that they will be glad to relieve you of the need to actually write a check and post it.

 September 2

We decided to go up to our favorite dairy yesterday. It was an impromptu trip brought on by our realization that our milk would not last til next week when we were going to go anyway. They had their yearly offering of mums so I picked up the new plant I planned on. It is now transplanted into one of my empty 5 gal buckets. Then, since we were out already, we went to our favorite butcher shop and stocked up. After the freezer died we decided to use up most of that stock (we did save all of the meats and most of the other foods) and then replenish after we had decided what what we really needed. We wanted to simplify what we kept on hand. Needless to say--we didn't do much after we got home and got everything back home.

On the drive I noticed a number of trees already turning. It seems a bit early. I don't know if the trees are reacting to the hot temps, lack of rain for the last three weeks or so, or the cooler temps especially at night. We have been able to shut off the air and open the windows and doors. The cats are happy and have spent a lot of time in front of the open windows.

 August 31

Well, August is gone. I will have to change the door wreath sometime in the next couple of days. Change out the summer wreath for a fall wreath. It has cooled down enough for me to turn off the air and open windows. The breeze feels real nice. What ever systems the weather people saw either fell apart or jumped around us. Not enough moisture to fill a thimble. I got out in the gardens today and took out the peppers and the poor little dahlia that has looked sickly for the last couple of weeks. I also got the white rose transplanted. I wanted to give it plenty of time to get rooted in its new container before winter. I called it a day out there after I got everything watered and making mental note of the things I want to get done tomorrow. I finally identified my mystery plant which has begun to flower. It is Japanese indigo. I didn't plant it this year so I think it seeded itself and the seeds germinated when the soil warmed in the spring. I will leave it alone and see if I get more next year.