January 27

Our snow has ended and is already melting off the pavements. The sun is out right now which makes it hard to see to read or stitch even with the blinds down.

We did our shopping today though the only stop we really needed to make was the dairy. Our favorite clerk had reserved two quarts of their yogurt and we picked up the usual gallon of milk. She mentioned something that was interesting. Though almost all of her customers had friends and family that have contracted COVID but none of her customers themselves. I told her that reminded me of an article I read just recently which said that having a healthy gut "microbiome" seemed to provide some protection and pictured some of our favorite cultured foods: yogurt (which we eat 3 or 4 times a week, sauerkraut, pickled beets. She said most of her customers also consume yogurt and other fermented foods frequently.

Thankfully we didn't need any of their Amish produced meat because they had been run out over the weekend and Monday. Our Clerk said her customers were reacting to the weather predictions. As we left Mom and I laughed a bit. We didn't react to the prediction other than to decide not to go out while the snow was falling. We have enough to shift shopping two or three days either way.

I was surprised at our second and last stop: gas was up to $2.49/gal. I wondered about that and what might have caused an increased of $0.30/gal. My brother noted the same thing and attributed the increase to President Biden's cancellation of the Keystone pipeline. I don't think that alone was responsible since that pipeline was not yet transporting oil and all of the oil, from what I had read, was slated for export, i.e. not for our market. Brother also said he was glad he didn't live in a neighboring town (where he had once lived) because they are imposing a tire tax. I am not surprised since almost all governments are in a fiscal crisis thanks to the increased demands of revenue and reduction of tax receipts due to the pandemic. That is a big bite for Brother because he owns several vehicles. So far our town hasn't done the same.

Just finished reading an interesting piece by Alfred McCoy on Tomdispatch: Rip Van Biden. It did feel like we had awakened from a nightmare when Biden was inaugurated though we woke up to find that all the problems we had when we went to sleep are still present, are all more extreme and have only been exacerbated while we napped.

 January 26

Well we finally got the snow they had originally predicted for Sunday though not (yet) as much as they thought. Other areas got much more and Alabama got a really nasty tornado. They expect our snow will continue through tomorrow.

My own humble observation on the last week and what it indicates for the near future:

First--Former #45 is out of office (thank all the gods) but he is far from gone. As of now he can still run again in 2024 unless he is convicted in his impeachment trial and barred from future office. He may still command the loyalty of enough of the Republican base to tip an election and he is threatening to use it against anyone he thinks is insufficiently loyal to him. That consideration may keep enough Republicans in line to vote down the conviction. 

Second-- The Democrats have a narrower margin in the house and the Senate is evenly split. Even without Former #45 gettin meaningful legislation through will be difficult. And the parties are themselves beset by internal splits so legislation is going to be even more of a "sausage making" process than usual.

Third--The COVID situation won't be under any kind of control for the better part of this year or, perhaps, into early next year. Right now we are at an apparent plateau with respect to cases, hospitalizations, and deaths according to the latest news accounts. Which way the statistics will go from here no one knows. And no one knows how long the immunity achieved, both by way of vaccination and natural infection, will last. And the virus is mutating.

Fourth--AS the pundits have said the economic problems will persist as long as the pandemic persists. But many of the trends existed before the pandemic accelerated them. Employment won't improve any time soon. Too many small businesses closed and won't re-open. Look up the statistics for how many people the small business sector employed and you can see the scope of the problem. 

Fifth--Just as the political establishment is split six ways to Sunday the country is also split six ways to Sunday. President Biden's message of unity is nice but too many people simply refuse to accept that people may disagree but can still co-exist. There is a strong tendency (which has been growing for a long time) for too many on all sides to tell those who disagree to "do what I say and shut the F**k up."

I was going to let that thread go but I will provide another--Sometime in the 1980s or thereabout a trend arose in the child rearing philosophy that we shouldn't crush the fragile egos of children by expecting them to hold to standards. It became the thing to award trophies for simply showing up whether the children actually did anything else. It occurred to me that Former #45's administration was populated by people who grew up under that kind of regime. No one was selected for competence for the positions they held--unless you think the ability to destroy the agencies they controlled was the feature and not a bug. Many of them did that quite well.

Jan in SanFran has an interesting blog post that expresses something that has tickled the back of my brain: the overwhelming used of the word "sacred" in reference to the Capital building or referring to the mob attack as "desecration" of the "temple" of our democracy. For nearly the last three decades I have thought that with the decline of religious affiliation among Americans we have substituted politics for religion. Historians have referred the myths by which we identified ourselves over the last two centuries as a "civil religion." That has become more evident this century.

Ugo Bardi also has an interesting post which I need to think through before commenting.

Follow that Bardi post with this one from Infidel735.

Matt Taibbi has a Rolling Stone post that says much truth about the burden of student loans. I have said before that the whole program should be terminated and all the loans cancelled without any penalty to the borrowers. Lenders have been assured of payment by government guarantees. The program was based on the notion that a more highly educated workforce would benefit both the worker and the economy as a whole and everyone pointed back to the GI benefits after WWII. First problem was the GI benefits were not loans and didn't have to be paid back. Second problem was that the system was flooded with far more credentialed and/or degreed people than the economy could reasonably absorb. Third problem was the explosion of for profit colleges and universities whose business plan depended in enrolling and being paid for any and all students (suitable or not) who would be saddled with the costs whether they finished the programs or not. Taibbi says quite a bit more so I will let you read it yourself.

January 25

Another week and the first month of this new year is almost done. It just doesn't feel like 2020 ever really left. Some things have changed but others remain as they were. I have enjoyed watching news and not seeing Former #45  hearing his voice. That doesn't mean he doesn't dominate the political scene. He does and he will until either he dies or somehow his political hold is broken. That last doesn't appear to be likely in the short term. I mentioned Kevin McCarthy yesterday but he is not alone. A large part of the Republican Party is still either true believers or scared "s##tless" that he will somehow derail their political careers.

The politics are up in the air right now and no one knows how things will shake out. On the one hand the Texas party has just re-elected a Former #45 supporter as chair and sanctioned three politicians who either did not support his re-election or did not sufficiently violate laws to give him a victory. In Florida, reports say a couple thousand registered Republicans have changed their party affiliation. I have heard the same from other states. Where those voters are going varies: some to the Democrats and some to third parties. I would be delicious justice if the Kevin McCarthys found that they shored up their support from the Former #45 base only to be tanked by the Republicans who leave or who won't support them. Several states are working on voter restrictions to stymie the groups (black, Latinx  women) who delivered President Biden's win. Democracy depends very much on who defines the "demos" (the people) and it looks like the Republican establishment in some states are trying to define certain people out without explicitly doing so. 

 January 24

Found this from David Kaiser that was an interesting account of the New York Times story about Former #45's attempt to appoint a compliant Acting Attorney General to try to overturn the election. I had an odd thought at the point where he wrote that he was "shocked" that so many well-educated and successful men would sully themselves by going along with Former #45. I was not shocked because I have seen the several cheating scandals in U.S. military academies, accounts of bright people who have excellent credentials who decide to augment their records with fraudulent achievements, and several polls showing that American students would happily cheat on tests and plagiarize their research/writing. The moral rot goes deep and has been developing for a long time.

According the the news accounts over the last couple of days House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has (again) defecated out of the wrong orifice. He initially claimed that Former #45 bore a great deal of the responsibility for the January 6 coup attempt. But lately he has decided that everyone in this country is responsible. He justifies it with the usual "both sides do it" argument mixed with trying to equate mob violence with individual reprehensible behavior. Somehow, because some member of the Former #45 administration was greeted with catcalls, verbal abuse, or such by isolated individuals, we are all responsible for the insurrectionary mob. Sorry, Kevin. I am not responsible. The people I know, none of whom approved of any of those incidents, are not responsible. I reject the attempt to spread the responsibility and thereby erase the responsibility.

 January 22

We are watching the daily White House briefing and are thoroughly enjoying a competent press secretary who is something more than a pretty face. I do not miss the empty headed bimbos #45 employed. I also enjoyed Fauci's press conference yesterday.

I found this AOL article on what "comfort food" was most popular in each of the states when getting through that awful 2020. Yeah, biscuits and gravy.

Infidel753 wrote about his life for the last ten months. Ours resembles it to an uncomfortable extent. We are retired and even before the pandemic hit our lives were circumscribed in a limited set of circles--shopping, eating out every now and then, and occasional visits with family. Our link with the world beyond those circles are cables that link to the computers and cable TV. The pandemic has narrowed those circles. We haven't had Easter or Christmas dinners with family. My sister-in-law's  funeral was the last large gathering we attended. We haven't been out to a restaurant since late December of 2019. We did call our favorite pizza restaurant for delivery yesterday for the first time ever. We usually ate at the restaurant. We don't go shopping just to see what is out there and a lot of shopping has been on-line. I don't think the end of the pandemic will change that much but our old circles will broaden just a bit. But not for the better part of this year.

 Well, Toddler-In-Chief has left the White House

--but we still have a bit over two hours before the Inauguration. But so far I am impressed by Biden to date. That remembrance service for the 400+K dead from the pandemic was just right and so needed. It is sad it has been so long coming thanks to that narcissist  who played a president without ever really being the president.

And now he is a former President. I didn't watch his inauguration four years ago but I did watch the Biden/Harris ceremony and I found it inspiring, uplifting, and hopeful. I didn't realize how much I needed all that after the last four years feeling like a raw nerve constantly being touched. Watching all the ceremonies today the feeling I had last night watching the remembrance at the reflecting pool for the COVID dead--we desperately needed the ceremonies that #45 so thoroughly trashed. I don't think the normal before #45 will be re-established or the normal of pre-pandemic times. Too much water under those bridges. But hopefully we can calmly move into something we can thrive in.

 Day before #45's end🎉🎈🎈

Yes that is worth a celebration although the skunk may be gone as of noon tomorrow but the stench will linger. Axios had a facsimile of the invitation the outgoing administration e-mailed this morning for the "Celebration featuring President (insert name of #45 here)..." Anthony Scaramucci on Morning Joe said he got one and mused that they must be having trouble getting the audience they wanted if he received on. He left the administration after barely two weeks and on bad terms. I didn't link to Axios because the item was well down the list they featured.

The news just said that #45 plans to end travel restrictions from Europe--on January 26. In case you haven't heard, he won't be President then.

Rebecca Gordon has a good post that should provoke some deep thoughts: The Rubble of Empire. She could have added to the problems we share with the declining Roman Empire the climate change which reduced agricultural production and repeated pandemics from the mid-2nd century on which severely reduced the population. 

Jonathan Chait has some projections for #45's future to which I can only say "from your lips (or pen) to all gods' ears." The only problems I didn't see and I don't know how far the cases have progressed are possible charges in Georgia for interfering with the election based on his phone called to the Secretary of State and a senior election investigator.