July 29, 30

 Good very warm morning to you. It is also very humid which only makes it seem warmer. The forecasters keep promising us cooler weather but they keep moving it back by a day or two.

I went looking for articles like this after getting a tease on NZZ but the full article was behind a pay wall. Over a decade ago I read about the hikikomori phenomenon where young people, usually men, continued to live at home refusing to even leave their rooms. No girlfriends, no jobs, no graduating school. Evidently, from the BBC report, the hikikomori phenomenon is ongoing but now extending to younger children. I have seen similar reports of young people in China withdrawing and rejecting the social/political structures that they don't feel serve them: no fighting for places in prestigious colleges and or white collar jobs in prestigious companies. Just this morning a news/commentary show noted the lack of confidence people have in both of the main parties in the U.S. And the lack of confidence is especially pronounced among young people. I wonder how long before lack of confidence will lead to withdrawal.

30*********************************************

Was sunny for a bit this morning but is mostly cloudy now and should be producing thunderstorms later and overnight.

Back in 2009 ABC produced and showed a documentary titled EARTH 2100. You can look it up and actually view it today on Youtube for free. The film presents a possible future through the eyes of a fictional person who was born in 2009 and lived through to 2100 witnessing the changes due to climate change. I make a habit of viewing the show at intervals since. Interestingly many of the changes predicted (based on climate scientists forecasts) were coming about but at a faster rate than predicted. The producers and authors had a definite agenda:1) climate change is happening and the changes are happening faster than originally thought, 2) the changes will be catastrophic for humanity, and 3) that we can avoid the worst of the possible futures by mounting a global effort to change our entire societies and economies to meet the emergency. 

I can agree with the first proposition. Earth's climates have changed often enough in the past and often enough in very short time periods that didn't give humans much time to either move away or adjust. I can also agree with the second proposition as well. Past climate changes have been catastrophic for the populations experiencing the changes. The Anasazi disappeared. The Mayan population collapsed in warfare and possibly cannibalism. The European Little Ice Age caused crop failure, famine and in the 14th century the Black Death that eliminated about half of the population of Western Europe.

 However, I am very skeptical about proposition #3. Only six years after EARTH 2100 aired Donald Trump rode down his golden escalator and campaigned his way into the presidency. Part of his program then and today has been intense. The whole notion of a global action to effectively stop, much less roll back, climate change was a fools dream to begin with. Developing nations (and their populations) want what advanced nations (and their populations) have. The idea of cutting consumption (or anything that supports consumption) is anathema to both groups. A number of the bloggers who write about climate change and the consumer economy tell variations of the story about "activists" who go to and from  climate change rally in a gas guzzling SUV. I remember the caustic references to Gore's "energy saving" incorporations into his house which was huge by most peoples' definition and experience. But most would happily get Gore's mansion or a McMansion if we had the financial wherewithal. We emulate the people we admire. How many of Trump's MAGA fans wouldn't like to have his gold toilets? Or his trophy wives? Or his luxury homes?

EARTH 2100 constantly pushed the idea of collective action on a global scale but everything that worked were local and small scale. In the end the large cities and other large scale efforts failed. I have often thought over the last twenty years or so that successful adaptation to any adversity would be on local and individual levels.

July 28

 Muggy this morning with more possible thunderstorms. If the forecast comes through I won't have to water anything for at least a week. Now if it would just dry out a bit and the temperature would drop a bit I could make some progress in thinning out the planters on the patio. I spent a lazy weekend not doing much but It has already been a busy morning today. Just basic chores. That will give me plenty of time to read my e-mail and (maybe) comment.

First this morning is this post by Ugo Bardi. I wondered often during the war between Russia and Ukraine if it would be a case of Russian "winning" but in the end losing. The use of drones has simply prolonged this mess at a lower human cost--for the Russians of course. However, the Ukrainians have shown themselves quite inventive in the same technology. Bardi has some interesting comments.

William Hartung posted this piece on Tomdispatch today. While Bardi wrote about how drone technology is driving down the cost of killing, Hartung outlines the U.S. military-industrial complex focused on the most costly and questionably effective technologies. I read a novel where one character told his foreign counterpart that he didn't need to defeat any country's military--he only needed to bankrupt that country. I wonder how long it will be before our military "budget" will bankrupt us. Probably only after that sector has gobbled up all the resources spent to support people. By the way, I wonder where the meager "savings" DOGE stole from various parts of the government went.

Bill Astore published an article this morning on the spread of American Militarism and how far that ethos has permeated. I would add an observation or two. I was concerned when I saw the news reports about 15 years ago about the Federal government transferring "surplus" military equipment to state and local police departments. Suddenly every little town and hamlet in the country was lusting for its own storm troopers SWAT teams. Over the intervening time police forces have come to resemble an occupation force finally culminating in in masked, armored, and aggressive (read abusive) men snatching people who may or may not (usually not) be the criminal aliens we were promised were their targets. The militarized mind set has permeated deeply into our society.

July 24

Staying inside as much as possible. We are in the middle of another heat wave and are under a high heat advisory til 10pm tonight. Looking at the forecast that may be extended. We are more careful about planning our errands because of the heat. Tomorrow I have items to return to the library and they open at 9am. So I will be there as close to opening as I can. I think I will also stop on the way home and pick up some ice cream. Thankfully being retired we can generally hibernate.

On one of my brief visits to the What-Not-Room to put something away I found a couple of items I had totally forgotten. One was a crochet work-in-progress using soft thread (almost lace weight yarn) in a Bavarian stitch pattern. That is similar to the Catherine Wheel pattern but using the backpost treble to create an interesting texture. I brought that out to continue it. But right next to the box with the unfinished piece I found a cache of four skeins of baby yarn. I thought the four different colors would make a nice baby blanket using the Bavarian stitch. So I brought it out also.

I have almost finished a scrappy lap afghan using granny squares. Another attempt to get rid of my left over yarns. I have put quite a dent into that stash but have quite a bit more to go. After I finish the border round and weave in the ends it will be done. I also made progress on the to-be-embroidered table cloth. It is about one-third done. I picked up the other table cloth with the damaged motifs but it isn't top priority since I intend to cut the finished motifs out and incorporate them into something else. I found another table cloth stamped for cross stitch but I limited space for WIPs so it is where I will remember it and start it when a couple of other works are done. I have never been a member of the Church of One Project At A time.

ON to reading.

First up this post on Tomdispatch by Juan Cole. He makes a good case that Trump and his minions are well along a path to "Middle-Easternize" the U.S. I remember when the right wing went bat s%^t crazy over "sharia law" being imposed on the U.S. However, they don't seem to notice that whatever Trump is doing has the same effect as the actions of the Middle Eastern autocrats and dictators.

July 22, 23

Good morning, everyone. Not much to say so far. I closed down yesterday before posting the bit I had written. I just did it now. Let's see if I do better today.

The news was very irritating this morning. I turned it in the early minutes of a segment on the murder of the off duty CPB agent during an attempted armed robbery. First irritation, this story has been repeated too frequently over the last couple of days. Second irritation, why? Would the story be worth more than a local news cast if the victim had been Ordinary Joe and the perpetrator had not been an illegal immigrant who could (and probably should) have been deported by normal standards. This story isn't worth the time that has been given to it. Third irritation, first interviewee was that smug, sanctimonious Tom Homan, the "border czar." I didn't stick around for all of the deflections that point to the previous administrations, Democrats from however long ago, and anyone else he can.

23***********************************************

The news is what the news has been: totally idiotic concentration on the inane babbling of the addled the person ACTING as president. I say "acting" because he certainly isn't WORKING as president. Perhaps we should be grateful considering what his minions are doing in his name. I won't say "in our name" because I certainly didn't agree to this corrupt mess. That 49 and a bit percent of those who actually voted (as opposed to slightly--very slightly--less) doesn't mean I have to cede my approval and I won't let them steal it--as they seem to be stealing anything else they can grab.

I wondered  how long the carve outs for Alaska Murkowski got in exchange for the Big Bad Bill would last. I figured it wouldn't be long especially with the recision package going through Congress. If CROOKS&LIARS is correct some are already gone and Murkowski feels cheated. I just wonder why she feels badly used or couldn't predict what happened. Trump has never NOT reneged on an agreement.

July 21

 Hello, all. Nice sunny day so far. Should be somewhat moderate in temperature today but starting tomorrow the weather people predict a new stretch of 90s. We turned off the news early and are watching some reruns of our own. I also have a stack of videos borrowed from the library. They provided with a nice Saturday and Sunday watching a couple of seasons of MIDSOMMER MURDERS and a couple of episodes of SHERLOCK. I still have several other disks for the rest of the week.

A paragraph for LAST WEEK IN COLLAPSE caught my eye. I seem to remember some snippet about CATastrophe Bonds in an article about the woes of the insurance industry. This explains it a bit more:

Investors and hedge funds looking for yields not tightly related to the fortunes of the stock market are increasingly turning to CATastrophe bonds, which are basically bundles of disaster insurance contracts that pay most of their profits (if there are any) to institutional investors instead of to insurance companies. This arrangement helps insurance companies offload rising risk caused by flooding and other climate risks. The risk of a year stuffed with disasters grew too great for some insurance companies to cover all clients, fearful that they could be wiped out if a devastating year occurred. The market for CAT bonds began in the 1990s, and has hit record highs (and reportedly record profits) in 2025.

So far this year is shaping up to be another bad one for property damage.

By the way did anyone notice that the Administrations has allowed the transfer of Medicaid information (names, SSNs, addresses, and phone numbers to ICE? I wonder how long it will be before a similar transfer will involve Social Security and Medicare. I wouldn't take any bets on how secure IRS data is or how soon the DOGE boys get their greedy little hands on it.

I found this report on an Arkansas news site (by way of CROOKS&LIARS) which says that the number of Arkansas farmers filing bankruptcy petitions in this year's 4th quarter is nearly double the number of such petitions filed last year. The C&L piece notes that Arkansas farmers went for Trump in a large way and now find themselves in a much worse position. I don't blame Trump for ALL of their problems. The tariff threats have created a great deal of uncertainty and the loss of some markets (such as China) who consider the U.S. unreliable (which we have become). No one likes to make long term plans when the future is so uncertain. But the weather has also played holy hell with wide swaths of the country and farming is a time dependent activity. Seed has to go in the ground at a certain time, the sufficient rains have fall at the right time, there has to be enough sun and appropriate temperatures at the right time followed by harvest at the right time. That schedule has been thoroughly screwed up. Tariffs aren't the only thing that will push food prices up and there is damned little Trump (for all his arrogance) can do about those other things.

July 16, 17

 Just saw the head line of a post I didn't bother reading. It said the new Superman movie was fun but "is it Woke?" Point 1) I really don't give a damn. Point 2) why the hell would it matter? Point 3) by what definition of "woke?" Maybe we should just enjoy things and not play "language police."

17************************************************

Yesterday wasn't a good day for me. The night before the cats kept bothering me so I was a bit sleep deprived, headachy, and grumpy. You can probably tell from the single entry above. The whole notion of "woke" irritates me just as much as "political correctness" did before. Both notions were pushed to the point of meaninglessness. I keep thinking of my reaction when a Trump voter interviewed just after the last election was jubilant because the could use the word n$%#r again without getting flack from those who heard her. I wondered if she was such a coward or so ashamed that she couldn't enjoy being rude in public.

Several news commentators and bloggers have covered Trump's troubles dealing with the Epstein mess, a controversy of his own making. He has tried to get the MAGA parts of the Republican Party and the "news" media" to just "shut the f-- up" about it only to face serious push back. He has gone so far as to disown those supporters declaring them "stupid" or "fools duped by Democrats" or insisting the whole thing is a "hoax" created by Democrats. He even claimed he didn't "want their support." He insisted Epstein was arrested, tried, and died during Biden's tenure when in fact that all happened when Trump was President the first time. As one said this morning "you live by the Epstein; you die by the Epstein."

So the Trump Vengeance Train rolls on claiming Maurene Comey,  a successful Federal prosecutor in several high profile cases and James Comey's daughter. 

July 14

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=canada+U.S.+water+conflict&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8Good morning and Happy Bastille Day. And welcome to half past July. Sunny though the sky is looking a bit pale. I don't know if that is because of smoke coming down from Canada or some high thin clouds. I just checked the Weather Channel which reports an air quality alert through tomorrow. We are in a stretch of high 80s and low 90s for temperature. I was able to get out to water the few plants I would like to see survive this year. We haven't had any significant rain for about a week and none is predicted til, maybe, mid week. We'll see if we actually get it. I pulled a couple of weeds but I am deferring the real work for when the temperatures drop enough to allow me to get out for longer periods.

The discussions over the Medicaid cuts the administration promised wouldn't happen but somehow did and what those mean for rural hospitals. Few of the commentators talked about what those cuts mean for URBAN hospitals. Well, this last weekend reporters at one of the Chicago stations talked about that issue. Three hospitals, including one of the largest, are planning staff layoffs and curtailing services or closing entirely. 

The COVID emergency and the extra funding that the Biden Administration managed to get through held off the crisis for a bit but the problems hospitals and other parts of our health care "system" are long standing. One of my brothers was supposed to have back surgery today but found out last week that the hospital he thought he would be using refused his Medicare Advantage insurance. His efforts to find another have hit a brick wall. The problem with insurance isn't a new one for him. A physicians group he has dealt with for a long time no longer accepts Medicare. His problems reminds me of the problem we had trying to find a new family doctor about a decade ago as many were no longer accepting Medicare. The problems include the perennial ones we have heard of so often: low compensation for services, difficulty getting services approved, increased paperwork. Trumps One Big Beautiful (NOT) BILL have only exacerbated the problems.

Watching BBC this morning I was intrigued by a brief mention of a controversy between Canada and the U.S. over water; in particular, over renegotiating the Columbia River Treaty which governs the relationship between the countries with regard to the river. Le Monde published this article on the matter last March. But I found this page by way of GOOGLE which also discusses similar problems over the Great Lakes Compact which covers the Great Lakes. We are also in a diplomatic tussle with Mexico over the distribution of waters from the Lower Colorado River. GOOGLE also had a good article on this issue.