December 22

Still dark here. But the Solstice came yesterday so we will see a gradually increasing length of our daylight. I guess I should get real about ordering seeds and/or plants. I started a preliminary list but need to finalize it. I always check out the heat and drought tolerance of any plants I consider growing. I didn't do that ten years ago. Ten years ago I would be looking at tomatoes and peppers. But they don't like temperatures above 90F. I don't have a lot of space so what I put has to be pretty and/or productive. Especially if it is a large plant. We expect rain today which hadn't been forecast earlier in the week. Luckily, yesterday we decided to do our last bit of shopping before next year.

Stray thought this morning: there has been a lot of time spent on comments about the Colorado Supreme Court decision that 1) upheld the lower courts decision that The Former Guy did engage in and abet insurrection, 2) that he is therefore disqualified to hold the office of the President of the U.S. and 3) that it would be unlawful under the Election Code for the Colorado Secretary to list him on the ballot. You can read the decision here. Of course, The Former Guy is going to appeal sometime next week to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

A lot of pundits are reading the entrails (or consulting their tarot deck or looking at their astrological charts) to prognosticate what the Supremes will do. I see several possibilities. First, they might just punt, leaving the situation in Colorado standing because it only affects Colorado. The Colorado Republican Party is threatening to run a caucus (which they have done before) bypassing the primary and allowing their caucus voters to nominate TFG. However, if he isn't allowed on a primary ballot because of the Supreme Court's decision, The Secretary of State couldn't lawfully list him on the general election ballot either. 2) An appeal claiming that he hasn't been convicted in court probably won't fly since the Colorado court found as a matter of fact that he was guilty and the D.C. case does charge him with insurrection and may be decided before the election. Also the U.S. Supreme Court decides based on the law and does not decide on the facts. Furthermore, the Amendment does not specify that a CONVICTION is required. The Supreme Court might decide they can "infer" such a requirement but they are supposed to be "strict constructionists" and "textualists," in other words they say they look at the text. If they go this route they will show themselves to be hypocrites. 3) The Amendment specifies that an insurrectionist can't HOLD federal office not that he can't stand for election or even get enough votes to win. The U.S. Supreme Court might not this and allow those states whose election laws don't specifically prohibit someone who is ineligible to hold the office to be on the ballot. We tend to forget until something forces us to remember that U.S. elections are run by the states. I might be able to dream up more possibilities but I am going to stop here. However, this goes this country is going to be in s**t for at least the next six years.

Some (sort of) good news: California is now out drought. The latest "atmospheric river" has dumped enough to raise their reservoirs to 130% of normal and broken the decade long drought. That moisture is now moving toward Arizona which badly needs it. Of course, the rain has resulted in flooding in parts of Southern California.

CNN has a long article on the Chinese economy and the silence of previously critical Chinese economic analysts. I have read several articles about different sectors of the economy and none of them were optimistic. And the notion that the economy is in a serious deflationary period. Deflation can be as destructive as inflation. Xi and other government officials have been trying to get the Chinese consumer to spend more without much success.

Naked Capitalism introduced this piece as "the definition of madness" and it certainly is--on part of the U.S. and the South American countries in on the negotiations. We certainly do not need another quagmire considering how Ukraine and Israel appear to be going. And how well our previous interventions in Central America and in Columbia went.

This is an interesting discussion of the situation in the Red Sea. I don't know the source on this but I haven't read, in the very scanty coverage in our media, which contradicts the facts or the analysis. I will add one thing to their observations: most of those who have joined the group the U.S. is putting together to counter the Houthis' actions are the ones who benefit most from the trade that goes through the Red Sea and Suez Canal. Most of the others mentioned have strong reasons for not joining in.

Robert Reich continues his multi-part series examining American Capitalism with part 5: The Pernicious Myth of Meritocracy.

Lyz at her substack "Men Yell At Me" has nominated the 118th Congress as "Dingus of the Week." She makes a very good case. I wonder if she does a "Dingus of the Year" list.

 

December 18, 20

Sunny today and the wind has died down. I found a trellis, the shepherd's hook with the wind chimes, and anchored by two 5-gal buckets had been blown over. I put it back upright but the shepherd's hood is no longer straight up. I think the trellis was the factor which the wind caught to topple everything over. Later in the week I will have to untether the buckets from the trellis and put the trellis in the shed for the season.

Nouriel Roubini wrote a piece to update his MEGATHREATS book published last year and updating his assessments. The assessment is even bleaker than it was in the book.

20**********************************************************************

Sunny again today. Been busy already because we are doing laundry and I had potatoes to boil for potato salad.

Aurelien has a post on the Ukraine situation that bleeds over into comments on The West and the U.S. in particular that presents a bleak future, especially for those who think the past is what the future will be. I never had an optimistic view of how the conflict would go. I based my notions on a couple of factors: the fact that the Russian population was a bit more than three times the Ukrainian population and that the Donbas, which Russia pretty much controlled for a number of years was the industrial center of Ukraine. You need an industrial system that can supply the military. I was surprised about how poorly the Russian Army performed. They still aren't very impressive but they aren't collapsing and the government is not either. The Russians have cannibalized parts of their population to replace losses (The Wagner Group, the jails, Shanghai-ing men off the street, the ethnic minorities and "allies" like the Chechens). But they have more to cannibalize than the Ukrainians do. Pay special attention to Aurelien's comments about the economics of war. They certainly don't favor either Ukraine or The West. And much of what he has to say about our technology has been said by other bloggers I read.

December 18

We have snow right now. I don't know how many pulses have come in over night. This round is very light but driven by high winds. The wind chimes have been tinkling away all morning. The snow is a grapple kind--you know, the type that resembles little balls of styrofoam. Oh, well--it has only been a few minutes and the snow is heavier now. We don't have any errands planned until Thursday (maybe) so the snow should be almost gone (we hope).

The little birds, the type a blogger from Montana calls LBJs (little brown hobbies), try to avoid actually flying. The spend more time diving into the remaining plants. So far the lavender, mints, and sage still survive. I think a couple of the mums are hanging on. Several others have died back to ground level and will emerge in the spring.

Organic Prepper posted this about one of the elements of the COP28 meetings: encouraging the incorporation of "novel" proteins (read insect) into our diets. Of course the participants stress food shortages and the "overconsumption" of meat in the industrialized countries. The author does a good job of demolishing the overconsumption argument. I would add that much of the food shortage problem is due to conflict, government action (or inaction) and climate disasters. I resent the con job/gaslighting the food processors and some governments are perpetrating. Somehow they want us to believe that any reduction in consumption (or change in diet) in industrial countries would benefit the less developed countries. It resembles the old tactic some parents indulged in when I was young telling their kids the eat their broccoli (or what ever food they hated) and remember the starving kids in China--as if the rejected food would be teleported around the globe. 

David Kaiser posted "The Fall of the American Empire" over the weekend. His conclusions fall in line with some other authors I have been pecking at for a while. The stack starts with Andrew Bacevich's AFTER THE APOCALYPS and continues with Henry Kissinger's WORLD ORDER, Alfred McCoy's TO GOVERN THE GLOBE--among others. I think it was James Howard Kunstler who wrote on his CLUSTERFUCK NATION blog the The Former Guy (whom he supported) was the first American president who actually acknowledged America's changing fortunes with his slogan "Make America Great Again." But that slogan suggests getting back to the "Eden" of the American Century (if it was such a paradise) requires conditions (economic, political, and social) that I don't think actually exist anymore.

December 16

 We had a very brief bit of sun this morning and it is raining now. The weather report predicted colder temperatures and the possibility of some snow over the next couple of days before the temps go up again by Wednesday. The weather people are predicting a wet not snowy Christmas.

Naked Capitalism has a bleak post from Vijay Prasad that, I think, reflects the true situation in the Middle East and not the "wished for" situation that the U.S. and so many Western countries keep parroting. I have said that cease fires, peace talks, a "two state" solution or what ever the pundits are smoking, isn't possible with two intractable sides. Actually, all it takes is one such. Even if Israel agreed to a cease fire, there is nothing binding on Hamas to accept.

Gail Tverberg has a list of ten things that will change if fossil fuels supply becomes constrained.

Well, the jury in Guiliani's defamation case decided he owes $148 million to the two poll workers he claimed were passing "thumb drives" around like vials of cocaine and changing votes from The Former Guy to Biden. He complained that he wasn't "allowed" to prove his case but that tries to whitewash his decision to not participate by providing required discovery. And then insisted that everything he said he could show some justification for and that his oral defecations weren't really related to what happened to the two women. Sorry, Rudi, you simply aren't believable.

Bill Astore has a couple of pithy statements about 1) a Pentagon budget that approaches $900BILLION in spite of the fact they have failed 6 AUDITS IN A ROW and 2) our politicians' continued support for a "two state" solution though it is evident that Netanyahu wants a "no state solution"--specifically no Palestinian state and few Palestinians.

About 30 years or so ago when there was one of the many controversies over opening the North Alaska (potential) oil fields to drilling, I read the amount of oil the experts and politicians were salivating about. It wasn't long after I read a report of how much oil we use daily. I found the report easily enough and did some quick math to give an estimate of how long that cache of oil would last us---a whole four months. This article lists the seven major oil producing countries and their reserves. I was going to do the same math again but the author saved me the trouble. All of the known reserves will last another 38 years. Can anyone else spell "OH, SHIT!!"

I saw Ruby Freeman speak after the jury awarded her and her daughter that incredible amount, that they probably won't be able to collect all of. She noted everything the money won't give her back: the home they loved, her reputation, her name. This is another story where the damages awarded to people who suffered loss because of a company's criminal actions are not nearly enough to make them whole. I read the story the author wrote about their struggle to get compensation and was sick. Their reaction is totally understandable.

December 15

Welcome to half-past December. The U.S. House of (Un-)Representatives have already gone home until January 9th. I wonder how many of the people they (un-)represent would like to have a paid three week holiday for Christmas and New Year's.

Jezebel has this latest atrocity by the Florida legislature. They are trying to drastically roll back child labor laws--Oh, excuse me--they are "liberating" "youth workers." That kind of "liberation" we can do without. I have felt for some years now that we were going backward to some bad old days. Victorian employers had a "youth worker" wage--about a quarter of what an adult man earned and half of what an adult woman earned. It took the combined earnings of a couple and every child over the age of 6 or 7 to barely survive. It took a hundred years of struggle to finally get to a "living" wage where a man earned enough to support his family on a 40 hour work week. The slogan had been "Eight hours to work, eight hours to sleep, and eight hours for what we wanted." All of the gains are being eroded.

Robert Reich continues his series on the problems with American Capitalism.

December 14

 Sunny so far this morning. Supposed to be warmer. I hope so because I need to sweep on the patio. I have collections of leaves in various nooks and piles of seed hulls under the bird feeder. Winter hasn't really started no matter what the calendar days and I already long for spring. The drab browns are not at all pretty and we haven't really had any long lasting snow to relieve the drabness. Mom said this morning that it just doesn't feel like the Christmas season: the music isn't as prominent, the decorations are very ordinary, and we haven't seen any really new or interesting, much less exciting, products. The advertising is more moronic than cute or interesting.

Stray thought #1: our leaders and many worldwide have been trying to push the Israelis into a ceasefire followed by steps to establish a "two state" solution. I saw a segment from an interview on (I don't know which) some network between a spokeswoman for the Israeli government and some anchor (I don't know who) which devolved into the woman trying to say why the "two state" notion is not workable and the anchorMAN repeatedly talking over her trying to get her to agree with his premise that the "two state" plan was the ONLY way to go forward. I kept shouting (and wishing) at that male idiot to shut up and listen. Her point, which he tried to make sure no one heard, was that as long as Hamas is present there is no solution. I would also say that as long as the Israeli government supported the Israeli settlers trying to push non-Jews out of the West Bank there is no way forward. The Idiot never thought of asking a question that would get at that. We tried to eliminate Al Qaida and it mutated and morphed into the Islamic State, Al Qaida in the Magreb, Al Qaida in the Levant, Al Qaida in northwest Afghanistan. And it has roots going out to Islamists in Nigeria, in Sudan, in the Horn of Africa and other places. That worked out real well, didn't it? (Sarcasm!!)

Robert Reich has an interesting article describing a discussion he hosted between Palestinians, Jews, and even an Israeli concerning the conflict between Hamas and Israel. I liked the distinction they came to that explanations are NOT justifications. You can explain a horrendous act but you can't justify it. I noticed that they came to the conclusion that two states are the only solution but aren't likely given Israel's treatment of Palestinians and Hamas.

The Milei government in Argentina has devalued the peso by 50%.  Al Jazerra presents the details here. They are also planning to drastically increase social spending, primarily for the lowest economic levels, to help the poor absorb the shock.

December 12

 Dawn is just breaking here. It looks like we have frost on the most surfaces so it got cold last night.

Annie Snider at Politico Nightly presents a nice overview of the water situation along the Colorado River basin. For the moment a few of the interested parties have agreed to slight limits on their claims to water for an infusion of $1.2billion from the Infrastructure Act. But that is temporary and there are seven states, Mexico, several Native nations, farmers who supply a large share of our food, and tens of million urban dwellers struggling to come to an agreement that meets needs AND recognizes environmental limits.

Censorship has become, again, a controversy. Senators in hearings rake three university presidents over the coals because they didn't punish demonstrator calling for "genocide of Jews." On the one hand you can deplore the sentiment but what negates rights to free speech? And what responsibility should one take when someone else takes one's words and acts on them? That is what is at the core of the gag orders on The Former Guy. He speaks and someone else threatens the people he criticized. This piece by Dr. Naomi Wolf brings up another part of the story: censorship of controversial views by social media. Who decides what is "misinformation," "disinformation," or whatever? I have seen at least two sites I read regularly faced similar de-platforming. The issue is at the intersection of science/medicine (and when is it trustworthy), economics (whose pocketbook is affected by which arguments are accepted as trustworthy) and politics (whose position/reputation is involved in which story is accepted.)

Gizmodo had this story which should be put up for a "stupid of the week" award. It is one thing to "forget" the gun in your luggage but entirely another to forget the one you are carrying a gun into an MRI exam.

Connecting on a link in a story on Naked Capitalism this morning I found this story on "aphantasia" which I had never heard of before. It is the inability to construct mental images. The longer article reprinted from Aeon is an interesting discussion of how differently people perceive the world around us.