Another frigid morning with snow expected later today. We won't get out of the deep freeze and into the 20s until a week from tomorrow if the weather people are right. Hibernation sounds like a real good idea.

David Kaiser's new post parallels many of the thoughts I have expressed over the last couple of years. I summed up the current situation by saying that Barack Obama was the last president of the United States while #45 is the first president of an entity that will bear the name but isn't the same.

We had a couple of inches of new snow from yesterday afternoon through last night. Our temperatures did get into the low double digits but the wind made it feel much colder. We are doing what the public safety experts on the news recommend: staying inside and warm. This cold weather is predicted to linger for at least another week. Not much worth commenting on and we have been busy getting caught up on chores which languished during the depths of our illnesses over the last two weeks. Now I am ready for a nap.

Another cold morning. At least the temps are above 0* though not by much. The shopping and errands yesterday wore us out. We are still a bit tired today wishing the last of these colds would go away--soon.

I will try to work my way through the seed catalogs but I feel so far behind. I had planned to have the orders in already but this crappy cold intervened. I started editing my "wish" list--all those seeds that sounded interesting but on closer look wouldn't do at all for my small space. But I hadn't received all of the catalogs at the point where I started the list so it is time for another whack at the project.


"The Elephant In Our Midst" is an excellent title for this piece. I won't bother getting the book. I have read a lot of similar information for a long time. Some years ago I dissected the promise of "globalization" and found it wanting. The key premise (that everyone would benefit from the process with more money and more goods at better prices) was false from the get-go. Middle class incomes stagnated, jobs paying middle class wages disappeared, and we got cheap quality goods at dear prices. Definitely not a good exchange. That the wages of the middle and even low percentile workers in Asia and Africa went up fantastically doesn't surprise me. Those were paid for with our lost wages and opportunities. Those in the West who benefitted "bigly" are the ones who have been telling us the economy is doing well--and for them, it is. For the rest of us the pie is shrinking and the knives are coming out as people try to defend their positions and, perhaps, carve a piece off someone else's share.

It is bitterly cold here only -3F so far. They have changed the weather forecast and lowered the expected highs for the next three days as well. The news weather used the term Chi-beria (smash up of Chicago and Siberia, for those not from the area) for the first time in a few years. We do have to go out: we need to pay rent, get groceries and get cat litter. Our two week recovery from the cold left us with spoiled milk, yogurt, and cottage cheese. Plus we need to replace other staples. But we will make the trips as quick as possible and bundle up.

We got started more than a bit late because the car wouldn't start. That was frustrating because much earlier Mom started it and let it run while she cleared the snow off. It took almost an hour and a half to get through to her insurance company and get them to send someone out to give us a jump. It was annoying but understandable considering the wallop this weather has caused over such a large part of the country.

This story is interesting in light of our shopping today. We were looking for Tidy Cat scoopable litter in the paper bag rather than the plastic container. We did get it in plastic first time around but don't really don't want to discard more plastic. We finally settled on a different brand that comes in a cardboard box. We don't use as much plastic as we once did but getting it down further is difficult given the amount of plastic packaging.

Hope you all had a good holiday. Ours was very quiet as we recovered (and are still recovering) from a damned nasty cold. We used to get over such maladies quickly in three or four days at most. This time we were miserable for almost two weeks. From what I have seen on line we weren't alone. A number of posters complained about suffering the symptoms for two full weeks. We are almost back to normal physically and beginning to reestablish our routines.

The other disruption is far more pleasant--two new cats we adopted from our local shelter. Our colds hit at the time we were supposed to pick them up after the shelter had has them spayed and chipped. Mom was already too sick to drive. I was just barely able to function. They have had almost free rein here. It has been about four years since the last of the old cats exited the scene at advanced old ages. Though we insisted at the time we wouldn't have pets again we found we missed the little devils. Every now and then one should have one's life shaken up a bit. Keeps you from getting stale and bored.

I hope this link works because Robert Reich has a perfect summation of the last year and why it has been so depressing on the political front. Last year, just after the election, I wondered if #45 would be the last president of the U.S. which seemed, and seems yet, intent on tearing itself apart. After nearly a year I adjusted that opinion: #45 is the first president of something called the United States of America (but which is anything but) while Barack Obama was the last president of the experiment started seven years shy of 250 years ago.

An interesting trip down a culinary memory lane. I recognize a lot of this--like using the various canned soups as a base for casseroles or incorporating various prepared, packaged, or frozen foods into meals. As I read the piece I was struck by how much our own food prep has changed over the last decade. We have no canned soups in our pantry--at all. Well, I have to amend that: we do have a selection of ramen noodle soups as an emergency. We actually used one over the last two weeks of our recovery from colds. We don't use Crisco any more but do use butter and lard. We do some of the oils (like olive oil) for salad dressing which we make from scratch now. We don't use any frozen or prepared foods. I have told Mom frequently we are going retro in a big way.

We are both under the weather here so I don't know if I have the mental and physical stamina to comment much. You wouldn't think reading and commenting on what you have just read would take much of either but it can be exhausting.

David Kaiser has an interesting dissection of the Alabama special Senatorial election. Most of the pundits I have read follow the line Kaiser debunks: Jones (D) won because of a surge in Democrat voters especially black voters. Kaiser makes the case that there was no surge for either candidate. The vote tallies indicate a decline in actual voters but that the Republican's lost more than the Democrats did as a lot of voters simply stayed home. Kaiser's statistics seem to reflect something from the 2016 election which only one or two pundits have mentioned: Clinton lost because a very large portion of those who had been expected to vote for her simply stayed home or did as we did and left the presidential preference blank. Mid-term and off year elections as well as down ballot candidates have for years attracted fewer voters but this year's special elections have attracted even fewer. I am glad Jones won but I wish there was a clear indication the Republican voters are rejecting the bellicose, theocratic, misogynist, and racist wing of their party. I would also like to see a realignment away from the "business" factions of each party toward the mass of ordinary Americans.

This has been coming so it isn't a surprise. The NY AG is planning to join a multi-state lawsuit to overturn the FCC's 3-2 vote to abolish the net neutrality rules and no longer consider the internet a utility. Patheos has another article on the possible implications. About all I can do is vote with my feet and wallet. I love the internet but if it becomes too expensive I will do without it and I can. I can still use the library. I still know how to read books and my attention span hasn't been reduced to tweets and sound bites.

Contrary Perspective has a post that hits a couple of my buttons. I have been totally annoyed by two almost obligatory behaviors: the constant refrain of "thank you for your service" when ever a reporter interviews a veteran or someone currently serving and the ubiquitous flag pin. They are unthinking conditioned behavior somewhat like Pavlov's dogs slavering. Those are the cheapest expressions of "patriotism" that don't require any real sacrifice of time, money or thought. The author is probably quite right: it bodes no good at all for the future of this country. One could actually question whether there is a country to have a future.

On a bit of a lighter note, take a look at the jolly skeleton mosaic from the 3rd century BCE.

Another not so surprising set of statistics about which schools and degrees have the most defaults and, as the lead in says, it isn't the humanities.

Not much snow yesterday but plenty of wind. Only 21F so far. It may go lower before the sun comes up. The weather report says we may get into the high 30s with a good chance of some snow through today and tonight.

Well, they have to keep the prisons filled and petty marijuana laws do that job so well. Ronni Bennett has a post on AG Sessions' latest assault on legal marijuana.

The headline on this article is a bit of an understatement. I would say that American Capitalism isn't working for anyone under the 90th percentile of the economy. The economist interviewed for the article is careful to not tie the results to the economy generally but information is intriguing. The trend has been going on since at least 1999 so it isn't new. Also the statistics show increasing deaths from suicide, drugs and alcohol among both white working age men and, in a parallel though lower curve, white working age women. But that doesn't hold for black or hispanics of the same age and status or for Europeans. So, what gives?

I can relate to this article in a number of ways. My last academic interest (history) has been on the same path of extinction. But I have also loved some of the great writers of history, academic or otherwise. Unfortunately, those are becoming fewer and fewer. We get the celebrities but they aren't necessarily great writers. Some aren't even good writers. I don't know how many articles which should have been interesting I have started and then dropped because the writing was incomprehensible all the while wondering "what the hell are they teaching in English comp nowadays?" Will the loss of the "humanities" (including English, history, philosophy) make us somehow less human?