June 11

 Sunny with mild temps. I watered all of the plants. It has been cool enough that they didn't need much. All are looking good. I think all of the sunflower seeds were dead. Nothing sprouting yet and they have had enough time and warmth to sprout. Next time we have to go out shopping I might pick up a packed to new seeds.

I have read two articles on the intersection of climate and politics. One is a post this morning by Dave Karpf that republishes an article he wrote two years ago and is still relevant. The other is an article in The Atlantic posted yesterday written by George Packer. Both write about the population growth in the Phoenix area, water, and politics. At several points Packer cites a saying he heard often in his interviews: Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting. And the fighting is heating up and the sides intractable. Karpf asks if the climate change will lead to the rise of authoritarian politicians. One of the controversies in the E.U. which fueled the wins of hard right wing candidates was the efforts various governments have pushed to get to zero carbon emissions.

Joe Scarborough, on his morning talk/news show Morning Joe, asked Richard Haas to confirm his memory that the last time the right wing and nationalist parties made kind of gains they did in this last election Donald Trump was elected President here. Haas agreed. I hope history doesn't repeat. 

June 8, 10

 Partly sunny today with rain probable later and overnight. I thought I would leave planting til tomorrow and rely on the expected rain to take care of watering. But some of the new plants looked a bit wilted. So I got out and planted the petunias I had put where I intended to put them and then watered everything. Nature, as usual, forces you to do something not planned.

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

I did get the gardens almost planted yesterday. Almost because I forgot to plant the dahlia I put on the pot where I intended to put it. I don't know if I will get it done today because we have clouds and may get rain. The upside is that the temperatures are cooler. Update: I just planted the dahlia I forgot yesterday. It is actual almost cold out there with a bit of a brisk breeze. It is so much of a boost to my mood to see blooming flowers and green plants. We will probably see that til mid to late November. I put in new peppermint and spearmint to replace the ones that died over last winter. I never had mints die in winter. I added four or five new perennials which I hope will make it in my micro-environment.

From the various news media have been saying a lot of people are not at all happy and the voting seems to back that up. Several countries have posted surprises like India's Modi who survived but with a slim majority when he was expected to win in a landslide. Germany and France both saw extreme right-wing, nationalist parties show surprising strength. Macron has called a snap parliamentary election to, he hopes, shore up his party. the U.K. has an election coming up that might turn the Conservative Party out of power and South Africa's voters rejected the ANC for the first time in thirty years. The pundits opine that voters are frustrated and turning against whatever party is in power. I wonder how it will go here. Neither party here is really out of power because we have a very divided government. And neither party can say their presidential candidate is an outsider. Our choice is between the arsonist who failed to win election in 2020 and the fireman who won.

June 7

 Good morning. I have been lazy so far today. I don't have much I want to do today. Hopefully it won't get too warm too soon. I have a few pots I want to add some soil to and some I want to finish filling. We will be looking for plants tomorrow. I did plant the sunflower seeds and some cosmos seeds Mom got as a "reward" from some group wanting a donation. I put that word in quotations because it is really something to make you feel guilty if you don't donate. She has throws most of those away--even those she had donated to before. They all want a monthly donation preferably by automatic deduction from a bank account or on a credit card. She gives once a year.

Aurelian has an interesting post which I read most of (it is very long). He calls it "The Coming Neo-Tribalism. He does note that tribalism was never totally exterminated as societies changed. Even in so-called advanced societies retained elements of tribalism. With the social chaos over the last few years I often said that the tribes were resorting themselves--redefining who is in and who is out. Groups who have lost (or believe they have lost) power economically or politically or socially, are trying to regain the positions of authority they once held. Tribes were losing cohesion before liberalism became a major political ideology. As societies grew in population and spread out over larger territories subjugating other groups the connections and networks weakened. I don't know how old Aurelian is but the neighborhoods composed of extended families had almost totally disappeared by the time I was a teenager. One friend was Polish and lived in a Polish neighborhood but she was an exception. In my own family, none of my father's siblings lived closer than 200 miles from each other and none lived close to their parents. My siblings and I are closer spatially but not particularly closely connected in other ways. Our economic history over the last 400 years have also help in loosening tribal bonds. We are a people used to leaving people behind to pursue education and employment. Sometimes others followed but not always. I imagine tribes might reform if the economies around the world abandon the pursuit of globalism, which was always emphasized the individual over all, and contract to locally dominated economics. Interesting to speculate on the possibilities.

A couple of interesting things I saw yesterday. 1) The globe hit another temperature record with May 2024 was hotter than May 2023 which means we have just posted a 12 month stretch with each month hotter than its predecessor of the year before. 2) A massive field of oil (several hundred billion barrels worth) may exist under the oceans around Antarctica. The article said the Russians have been exploring those areas for the past decade.

We put on the Weather Channel almost immediately this morning. The first thing I saw on the regular news channel was Hunter Biden's trial. I wish I could shout into the programing execs I AM NOT INTERESTED. There is so much about the news that is totally uninteresting. And it is repeated ad nauseam.

David Karpf has a good post also this morning: The Republican Party has Belonged to Trump for a Long time. I see where he is coming from and the historical trends have been evident for decades finally culminating in the Cult of Trump. I like the quote from Rick Perlstein summing up his series of books on Republican conservatism: There's always more and it's always worse. It's never new.

June 4

Hoping the day will be dry. The forecast is for sun and temps in the low 80s. Planning to get two transplants in and some sunflower seeds I hope will sprout in spite of their age. I got them about 4 years ago. We plan to visit the farm market next Saturday where I hope there are more plants available. We will also visit Home Depot. That seems to be the best local source.

I was skeptical of the "cease fire" plan Biden outlined in his press conference last Friday. It was clear that, no matter what Biden claimed, neither Hamas (in spite of their vaguely "positive" response) nor Netanyahu had agreed. After threats from his right wing cabinet members, he insists that any "agreement" had to include the "destruction" of Hamas. I have already commented on the fuzziness of the word "destruction."

I did get the two transplants in and watered everything but it was already too hot to do any heavy work. I think that over the next few days I will do a couple of simple tasks like adding soil to a couple of pots already filled and get the remaining post (without plants as yet) filled and ready for planting. I noticed that the mints are almost ready for a first cutting which I think I will use for one of our pitchers of (soon-to-be) iced tea.

05********************************************************************

We had heavy rain early this morning. Too wet to do much outside. My cats are very unhappy because it is too warm outside for me to open the windows. They can't sit on the sill and dream of catching all those feathered chew toys just out of reach. I turned off the so-called news early. Nothing new or really informative.

One bit of news: Mexico managed something we haven't--electing a woman President. In fact, the two front running candidates were women. Claudia Sheinbaum is also Jewish. 

June 3

 Still very early here but dawn is just about here at just before 6 a.m. I am partially caffeinated--almost through my first cup. And working my way through my e-mail. The news/commentary is fixated on Trump's sentencing five weeks away. We have already heard more than necessary. The only way I can learn more about the issues involved would be to go to law school which, at my age and with my finances, ain't gonna happen.

Sunny today and warm already--mid 70sF. 

Janinsanfran posted an interesting piece on the ages of our probable presidential candidates. One is 77 (three years older than I am) while the other is 81 (six years older than I am) and the question of how their ages might affect them if they win. Both have already been President once so they both have a record to judge them on. But most pundits seem to ignore that. Jan quotes Kareem Abdul Jabbar who says that he is younger than either and thinks he is too old to be president. His major concern was an observed decline in mental acuity in both men though polls say it is a more pronounced problem for Biden, at least in the minds of respondents to the polls. But he makes a very valid point with which I agree. Aging is a very individual happening. I wouldn't want to run for or be president because I don't have the necessary physical stamina. But I do have an active mind capable of absorbing information and making decisions on that information. We tend to generalize our own experience over all others of our group--in this case older people.  But Jan makes another good point asking "are we asking the wrong questions?" Looking at the two candidates it is clear, to me at least, that one has the maturity, intellectual ability, and thoughtfulness to be president. The other is a child in a man's body, with a serious lack of impulse control, vindictive,  and has a noted inability to absorb information (especially that which doesn't allow him to do what he wants). I don't always agree with Biden's decisions but I doubt he will go off "half-cocked" , cozy up to dictators, burn down our legal system to get his way and benefit him and his family. Trump has done all that and will do worse.

Robert Reich asks a good question while considering the various government data on "consumers"--who exactly are they talking about. He divides consumers into two buckets: high income and low income. Businesses who cater to the low income consumers are in trouble as their customers pull back on their spending. Reich mentions that some, like Target, are shifting to attract higher income customers. The high income consumers aren't under as much economic stress but they are a smaller part of the economy. I would argue that the two tiers is simplistic. There are a lot of people in the middle whose economic prospects may be improving so they can move into the high income category or may be worsening and moving down the economic ladder. Our economic system is geared toward perpetual growth and the more consumers move lower in the economic structure the harder it is for businesses to grow. We have noticed a lot of ads on TV from companies we hadn't seen for a while. And we have seen more programming time taken up by advertising. It is frustrating, annoying and we are watching less cable and more of our own library of re-runs.

Reich notes in another post that Trump's convictions may not move many voters in any way. He has successfully fused his own (fake) victimhood to the perceived victimhood all too many feel.

June 2

 Cloudy for now though we should see some sun later today. Nice trip to the seasonal market yesterday. We saw fewer people selling seedlings. That may pick up later in the month. However I did find a nice pot of chives and a basil variety I hadn't seen before (Blue Spice). I will plant them tomorrow after things dry out a bit. Our favorite vegetable vendor was there so we picked up some tomatoes and a couple of ears of corn. A new vendor is selling their locally grown mushrooms. I think I will need to look for new recipes.

A few thoughts on Dune movies and books. The books are complex far more so than I thought when I read the first time. When I first read them I was struck economics of world which wouldn't have had any outside interest except for being the single source of spice, the most valuable substance in the universe. Dune and its inhabitants were vulnerable to outside exploitation on the same scale of savagery as what was the Belgian Congo endured. However, the empire that tried to control Dune and the spice was also vulnerable as its was dependent on the constant production of spice. As several characters said "The spice must flow." The first Dune movie was long an "atmosphere" and really very short on almost anything else. Dune is an excellent description of resource limits: both water and spice. The miniseries and the latest adaptation does a far better job. What I missed forty or so years ago on my first reading of the books and the first movie also missed (or barely glanced over) was the role of religion and government were interwoven. Those are a different topics for another day.

We have even more evidence that the U.S. no longer has the influence it once had. President Biden held a press conference to announce a proposal for a pause in Israel's operations in Gaza while hostages are released by Hamas and Palestinian prisoners by Israel along with a massive surge of humanitarian aid for trapped Gaza residents. Hamas seemed amenable but yesterday Israel objected because they demand Hamas be destroyed. I have wondered over the last several months what exactly constituted "destroyed." My suspicion is that only the obliteration of the Palestinian population (men, women, and children) in Gaza would meet their definition of "destroyed."

June 1

 Welcome to meteorological Summer and the first day of Hurricane season, The forecasters say they expect an active one. We'll see how many develop and how many hit our coasts. The heat has already appeared in several places.  Last week Pakistan and India posted temperatures of 50+C--122+F. I have read of other unbelievably high temps.

Heather Cox Richardson posted this piece on her Letters From an American site. It is a long one and difficult to sum up concisely. However, I think she is right to say that, since the guilty verdict, Trump and his acolytes are showing signs of panic and desperation. Ten of those Trump Mini-me clones are insisting that they will refuse to pass any legislation and refuse to approve appointments until (someone in someway, somehow) exonerates their god. And our taxes pay those useless bastards six figure salaries.

Having watched the new Dune movies I decided to re-read (for the first time in a few decades) the first six Dune novels. I have seen all of the movies from the 1987 version through the mini-series and its Children of Dune sequel to the current two movie treatment. I am still working my way through my own thoughts.

Stray thought--I really resent the notion that the verdict somehow hands the election to Trump. So--we should let a political sleaze-bag commit crimes just so he might not be elected?? This is supposed to be a government of LAWS to which ALL citizens are equally subject. Evidently Republicans think that only applies to Democrats and other unreliably Republican people. "Good" Republicans are somehow above it all.