May 17, 19

 Our heavy fog is beginning to lift. I am waiting until it is gone before I continue putting plants into their places. The forecasters say we should have nice sun later. We are watching the Weather Channel and its coverage of the mess in the south, especially in Houston. We really didn't want to see the dissections of the cross-examination of Michael Cohen and the Beauty Pageant of Republicans hoping Trump will pick one of them for his running mate. Of course, those Republicans were from the business tax paying citizens are paying them to do. Not that it mattered much because one of the committee meetings that was postponed degenerated into a grade school bitch fight. They finally settled down long enough to recommend Merrick Garland be impeached in another fit of posturing.

Some weeks ago Emanuel Macron strongly suggested that France and the EU shift to a war economy. This week Putting replaced his long time defense minister Shoigu with a technocrat economist with the mission to firmly integrate the civilian and military economies. Estonia has increased its military spending to 3% of GDP, participated in joint military exercises and is training its civilians in "trench warfare." Poland is also. I wonder how far this militarization will go.

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Sunny for now but rain should come in later and persist through tomorrow. We are so disgusted with the continuous coverage of Trump's New York trial with the microscopic examination of various aspects incessantly. Instead we put on a channel that had the first three Jurassic Park movies. I wasn't totally unambitious and put several more plants into the pots. I remember when I would have had all pots on the patio planted in one day. But, as my brother noted a while ago, we have entered our "old, fat, and slow" age. I just turned 75 last month and I am certainly fat and slow. (In case you wonder, Brother is 73 and matches me in the other attributes.

I just finished putting most of the rest of the plants we picked up Wednesday. But the gardens are only half planted. I will need another trip to get the rest. I also reduced the number of bucket by one. I used Flex-tape last year to cover a split but I noticed that, though still holding, the area is beginning to bow. I was using the soil in some of the buckets to fill some pots so I simply used what was in that bucket and then put it in the trash. If I regain some energy I might fill an empty bucket I found earlier this year. I might use it for storage instead of planting in it. Right now I am resting before planting the last couple of pots. 

Done for the day. Time to read.

May 15, 16

 Good morning on a cloudy and cool day. The forecasters say we will have showers today. After Mom's appointment yesterday we took advantage of the sunshine and went to look at plants. I came home with about half of what I need to fill my containers: one hibiscus, green oregano, sweet basil, the emerald tower basil, spearmint, peppermint, balloon flower, four diplodenia and a small flat of moss rose. I am sure I forgot a couple. I want to see if my sunflower seeds will sprout; they are well past their date. However, we expect rain til Saturday. I will wait til then (or Sunday) and hope things dry out.

I found a cartoon this morning which explains a lot about American higher education. Check it out at Bill Astore's Bracing Views. The summation down at the right is a bull's eye: The road to hell is paved with good corporate donations.

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My energy ran out so quickly yesterday I got very little done and very little read. I hope then showers hold off for the morning so I can get a start on planting the transplants potted. We'll see. 

First major irritation of the day: Mitt Romney told reporters that Biden should have pardoned Trump to stop the criminal trial. I guess Romney forgot that the trial that is nearing its conclusion is a STATE trial and no president can pardon anyone for state crimes. But I get really tired of the notion that a past president should be pardoned for anything which seems to have grown up in the Republican Party since Ford pardoned Nixon. If crimes are alleged against ANYONE, they should be indicted and tried. If found guilty they are entitled, like all convicted criminals, to appeal and/or argue for a pardon.

It has been a productive day. I got about half of the transplants in before it got too hot to continue. I guess I will have to get out really early sooner than I would have thought. The weather forecasters predict rain later today and overnight so I didn't water anything. I will check everything in the morning and water if needed. Tomorrow should be dry so I will try to get the rest of the plants in. When we do our shopping next week I need to get a bag of potting mix and some general use fertilizer.

Although I have a big library of e-books which I have purchased and downloaded to my iPad I don't rely on the "cloud." I have been and am skeptical of putting anything I can purchase in some arrangement I may not be able to access. Primarily I was and am concerned with what happens when the internet connections go wonky for any reason. This Guardian article addresses the problem I recognized long ago: what happens to your "purchases" when the vender disappears or drastically changes the terms of the arrangement.

Bill Astore posted about what he calls "the sham debates between Biden and Trump." I am surprised Trump agreed, at least for now, because the ground rules decree "no audience" and "a microphone kill switch" so the moderator can cut off the candidate who exceeds his time. Given Trump's past actions on the "debate" stage, I don't mind either rule. However, the exclusion of the "third party" candidates gives the illusion that our only choice is between Trump and Biden. I don't really expect a real debate because issues don't matter. Haven't had such a debate for at least 30 years.

May 13

 Sunny day so far and predicted to warm (temps around 80F.) Tomorrow is supposed to be wet but we have an appointment so that won't matter.

Stray thought #1--Seinfeld gave the commencement at Harvard (I think they said). He was met with some boos and a few walk-outs which he met with humor telling the remaining audience that they were probably wondering why the University invited him. But what resonated with me which the part of his speech (featured on the Morning Joe segment) in which he told the graduates: if you are graduating after four years here with no idea what you want to do, you are the lucky ones. You can do anything. If you think you know what you are going to do, you are wrong. Almost all of the commentators spoke about how true that was for them as all had jumped around on multiple career paths. Even the two who knew what they wanted to do said the question really what how they would do it. I have four higher level degrees (Bachelor and Master) and one lower level (associate). I have worked in biology labs, as a teaching assistant or an adjunct at universities and colleges, as a paralegal, a photographer, a data processor. Who know where the road will lead when you are at the very beginning of it and you can't see beyond the first curve.

Stray thought #2--we have raised a couple of generations of snowflakes. I remember when the right wing commentariat pulled out that appellation for left wing critics of those who objected to the use of pejoratives targeting women, racial/ethnic minorities, and LBGTQ people. Somehow those targeted should simply brush it off and get with the program (what ever that was). It has morphed into opposed camps who refuse to listen to anyone not in their camp and so self-righteous that they think their attitudes the only right and holy ones. As I typed this I remembered similar times (and not just in the 1960s). The snowflake gene is buried in our national DNA.

Bill Astore has a good post on the malleability of language. This ties into my stray thought #2. I try to keep an open mind (not always successfully) when thinking about people, countries, values with which I don't necessarily agree. I remember too many times when the information I got was wrong. And I try to avoid trigger words or pejorative words. Take a look at this graphic from Astore's (reposted from someone else) and think about how you respond to each pair.

Similar pairs of words can be constructed for any controversy.

May 12

 Beautiful and sunny right now but more rain expected tomorrow and possibly Tuesday. Happy Mothers' Day. Let's see if I can gather up some stray thoughts from the last few days that I haven't expressed.

Stray thought #1--so many of the news readers have had a good laugh about RFK, Jr.'s announcement that he has cognitive and memory problems thanks to a dead brain worm doctors removed some years ago. I decided to check out the medical possibilities and discovered that there really is such a condition. It is rare but it does happen and presents the symptoms RFK, Jr. described. People contract it when they ingest tapeworm eggs which hatch and travel through the blood to the brain. Kennedy traveled extensively in Asia, South America, and Africa where he could have acquired the parasite. I still don't care much for his ideas which deserve much more critical comment than the "brain worm" story.

Stray thought #2--I have no sympathy for either the pro-Palestinian or the pro-Israel side of the college protests. They remind me too much of the wandering "preachers" who appeared on the campus of the college I attended almost 50 years ago. I called them "blooming idiots" because they came every spring but there was nothing beautiful about them. They put up a box on the quad and drew crowds venomously calling all the women sluts and whores and claiming all of us, men and women alike, were hell bound. Some students (and perhaps a faculty member or two) tried to engaged them in thoughtful discussion but found that nothing they or the preacher said mattered. They ended up shouting past each other. Exactly the same situation holds with the two sides of the Palestinian/Israeli "debate". They self-righteously shout past each other while disrupting the activities of everyone around them. I am sorry if they are losing their assistantships, scholarships, and/or student housing but why should the schools reward atrocious behavior by letting them get off without consequences? I will say that some even handedness would be nice since some of the worst violence (apart from police action) came from the pro-Israel side.

On a more pleasant note is this post from Carol Michel. She talks about the three gardeners in her garden: Carol Past, Carol Present, and Carol Future. Carol Past reminds Carol Present (who does the actual work) of the results of ambitious plans that didn't pan out well which Carol Future thinks up for Carol Present. I can relate to that.

Stray thought #3--according to the news this weekend, Trump is "selling himself"--again. Along with the digital "trading" cards featuring himself in all kinds of heroic poses, the gold sneakers, the pieces of the suit he supposedly wore when arraigned in Georgia, he has now promised oil executives he will get rid of all the regulations and environmental measures they feel constrain them and their profits if they will just raise $1Billion to get him reelected. So he will sell himself for a measly $1Billion. Problem Trump can't be bought. He can only be rented until he find someone willing to pay more. I wonder if we can find a group willing to pony up $1.5Billion if he will emigrate to Russia and disappear.

May 9

 It may be raining but it has been a good morning. We finally resolved our computer problems. The Xfinity help representative did a wonderful job of walking me through getting everything properly set up. The main problem we had was two elder women who really didn't understand the system. Things are good for now. I have absolute faith in technology f---ing up--sooner or later.

Heather Cox Richardson has a good account of Biden's appearance in Racine, Wisconsin touting his administration's partnership with Microsoft to build a new data center. It is being built on the site of the defunct Foxconn project. I thought when I read about the project that it was going to be a boondoggle like some here in Indiana where the local and state government built up the massive infrastructure and providing direct payments and tax rebates only to have the company exit stiffing the states and local governments out of the promised jobs and revenues. The new proposal seems to be more realistic.

10**********************************************************************

Everything still working well. I checked our shed and didn't really have to do much. Tried to fill the bird feeder but a plastic shield that prevents the grain from falling out of the feeder was broken. There isn't any way to fix it. Plastic gets brittle after a while and we have had that feeder for several years. We have a new one feeder on our shopping list next week. We used to put up hummingbird feeders. I think I mentioned a bit ago that I was thinking of doing that again but the temperatures get too high and we don't have much shade on the patio so we decided against it.

I have read several articles over the last few years about the efforts of various countries and central banks to eliminate cash. One African country, I forget which, tried and got such resistance from its people that they had to pull back. This article I found on Naked Capitalism describes what is going on in Sweden which has moved furthest along that path and appear too be rethinking going cashless. The article cites concerns over potential threats from Putin's Russia and other political actors and criminal gangs. We have recently seen cyber attacks on cities, on utilities, on banks. Having back-ups and perhaps back-ups for back-ups is a prudent response.

May 6, 7, 8

 Looks like we might have a nice conditions for at least part of today. Over the last several days I got most of the patio swept and arranged most of the containers. We had a short stretch of much above normal temperatures which make the current period of normal May temperatures feel almost cold. I think found a way to secure my shepherd's hooks so I can have my wind chimes without toppling the buckets they are anchored in. I might even find one of the hummingbird feeders.

I made a lot of progress cleaning out the shed. I was so low on energy at the end of the last that I just threw everything in that I couldn't leave outside. Now I have to sort all that mess and pitch the things that aren't useful or, like a couple of containers, broken. I find a few containers like that each year simply because the extremes of heat and cold, and direct sunlight breaks down both clay pots and plastic containers. Thankfully the process takes a few years before the items degrade past usefulness.

Saturday we went to our local Ace Hardware store to replace a lightbulb for the bathroom mirror/cabinet and the spray nozzle which showed serious corrosion (I don't remember when I bought it but it was well used.) They have their plant tent in the parking lot so I took a look. We didn't buy any plants but I did find something interesting: the Emerald Tower basil shown here. Burpee and other companies have been developing varieties that fit into small spaces. We will go looking for plants starting next week.

Over the last few decades I have tried to be slower to respond to "breaking news." The first reports (and, nowadays, the second and third iterations) are so often very misleading. I remember, when I first heard about the bombing Timothy McVey perpetrated, I thought the criminal had to be some Muslim fanatic. I pulled myself up and powered up my skepticism meter and, therefore, wasn't all that surprised to hear new information identifying a homegrown terrorist. That skepticism meter has been working overtime over the last decade or so in this "Era of Trump." The stories about the college demonstrations is the latest has provided the latest episode straining my credulity. 

07*********************************************************************

Why do the college demonstrations strain my credulity? It isn't the demonstrations themselves but the coverage. I follow several sources of news and the pattern is clear. Most, but not all, of the "conservative" commentators support the pro-Israel side without any consideration of the Palestinian grievances. Palestinians are almost invisible--or worse collateral damages. And they also, almost never, criticize Israeli actions. Most, but not all, of the "liberal" commentators support the pro-Palestinian side of the argument with no real consideration of Israeli grievance and no criticism of Hamas tactics. But there are no good guys or bad guys, and our various media and our government are acting as though their boys(Hamas or Israel) are wearing the white hat. But no side is thinking about deeper consideration. Like the Israel today is not the Israel of the 1940s. Like should we be supplying today's Israel with weapons, money and diplomatic cover. I don't suggest supporting Hamas but perhaps we should try to help Palestinians find something better than Hamas. And perhaps find a way to stop Israel from a defect annexation of the West Bank.

Another thing raising my skeptical antennae--the number of politicians, commentators, and ordinary people are willing to curb the right to free speech as long as it is speech they don't like uttered by people they don't like. Too many of us believe in the our own absolute rights but everyone else only has conditional rights--conditional on their whim. 

08**********************************************************************

More computer frustrations. My new MacBook isn't maintaining a constant connection to the internet. The diagnostic page says it is connected to wifi but not the internet. My old MacBook connects and so does the iPad. Damn.

May 1

Welcome to May. This year is one-third gone. Sunny with mild temps likely to go higher. All of the really rough weather has bypassed us. Over the last few days I got half of the patio swept and rearranged. I plan to do the other half today. Four of my buckets and two small pots need to be cleaned out. I plan to take out the valerian and put in something else, and nothing is coming up in the indigo and second asiatic lili pot except weeds. They are going to go. I am still restraining the urge to see what is in the garden centers though many of the supermarkets have their plants out. Most of those were hanging pots which I can't hang and have no place for--not really interesting.

Evidently the authorities ended the Columbia siege (not other word for the take over of a campus building) fairly peacefully. Interesting that the police used a ramp to get in by way of the second floor. They are still processing the 40 odd people they removed but the police and the university administration say several (at least) are "professional" agitators. Wouldn't surprise me given the history of recent demonstrations where people not affiliated with the demonstrators converted a peaceful demonstration into a damaging riot.

Several news segments spent time comparing the current college uprising to the 1960s. Though each involve young people (not children as some of the commentators have said) but there are some interesting differences between then and now. First, the students of the 1960 had much more "skin in the game." The men could have been drafted, especially if they lost student deferment's. Second, the U.S. spent both men and money in an effort to confront Communism where ever they imagined it. The argument then was between critics of American policy and those who supported the government. Today the anti-communist motive has morphed into an anti-Israel stance and the opposition is a pro-Israel vs anti-Hamas (shading into anti-Palestinian). Any anti-government sentiment seems to be a minor note in the cacophony. William Hogeland has an interesting piece on the two instances of student unrest. I will have to re-read it. He has some points I hadn't thought of.

Nationalization by another name. While some people have come out against "globalization," I have thought that process has reached its apogee.  Even the U.S. is retreating from integrating global industries and supply chains. I and, I am sure, many others remember the dislocations of the medical supply chains during the pandemic when everything from personal protective equipment, drugs, surgical gloves, ventilators to everything else hospitals depended ran out or were impossible to find. But I also remember a slump in the auto industry because parts made in Thailand were unavailable because of flooding which took out the Thai factories. And more recent shortages in canned cat food because the supply of tin for the cans was disrupted. Many companies have been "re-shoring" their operations.

My reaction hearing about Kristi Noem and her dog was: you have to be smarter than the dog.