Hello, all. Welcome to the last week of October. Another sunny day in a continuing cool but sunny streak of days. I think the forecasters are still predicting rain for later in the week. But the western storm system is supposed to dip south to join a wet system drenching the southeast. Oh well, just caught the latest updated forecast and the rain has been removed. It doesn't matter because I am contemplating simply taking out what is still struggling along in the pots. I still want to take out three or four more containers but haven't got up the energy to empty them.

Bill Astore writes a good piece on his BRACING VEIWS site and I can give a whole heartedly AMEN! to it. However, I don't expect any of the politicians in power now to do what politicians for the last hundred years failed to do. 

I just saw a report on the news this morning that Milei has won his re-election in Argentina. I guess Trump's $20billion "investment" has achieved the first part of his agenda. The banks that coughed up another $20billion are breathing a sigh of relief along with the hedge fund billionaires who had already invested heavily in the Argentine economy. That doesn't mean Argentina and Milei are out of the deep water--they just got a leaky life raft. The economy is still deep in the crap.

Rachel Biticofer provides a history lesson showing where we came from and where we might be going. Do we really want to go there?

We hear people say often that "those who don't remember history are doomed to repeat it." Usually that is coupled with a recommendation that we are taught history. Over the last 40 years I have come to reconsider that notion. I don't think people really remember anything of the past unless they have themselves experienced it. Biticofer mentions the Franklin Roosevelt "revolution" which was a response to the Depression. Historians I have read often say that his administration saved American Capitalism from socialism. Socialism and Fascism were very strong movements during the late 1920s and the 1930s. But the memory of the Depression is fading and has been for some time. My mother is 94 and she barely remembers that time because she was born in 1931. Most of her early memories are of the 1940s. And the cultural memory is largely reduced to what is written and not what was viscerally felt. The Second World War is similarly remembered largely by what is written about it as those who actually experienced it fades from living memory. Vietnam is now 50 years in the rear view mirror. A generation has grown up since Sept 9, 2001. What is really sad is that those who want us to go back to what they think of as a halcyon era have no more real, visceral memory of that time that those of us who don't want to go back.

Ugo Bardi wrote an account of what might seem to be a remote episode (or rather episodes) of collapse in the Chincha Islands off Peru. The Chincha people disappeared when their population declined by about 99% as a result of diseases and political chaos that came with the Spanish conquest. The islands became a profitable source of guano (bird shit) for a world wide expansion of agriculture in the 1840s. The industry grew exponentially until just before 1880 when it crashed. Another growth of the industry came in the 1920s but was shorter and never reached the earlier level of production before collapsing about 1960. The Peruvian government tried to rebuild the bird population and were moderately successful but eventually populations precipitously to only 500k. Bardi provides a number of factors involved in all of the collapses but the most basic cause throughout was the overexploitation of a limited resource which couldn't be rebuilt in a timely manner--after all birds can only provide so much shit.

October 25

 We had several surrounding areas that posted their first frosts of the fall. We were near that but not quite yet. We might get rain later and it is mostly cloudy today. Nothing much on the agenda today: needlework, cooking a pot of great northern beans and ham, and (later) cutting Mom's birthday cake. I got a carrot cake and promised her I wouldn't try to put 94 candles on it. Right now we are waiting for the cornbread muffins to finish baking before eating supper.

Not many things worth commenting on but one is this post by Heather Cox Richardson. She notes that the AWOL Speaker of the House has extended their PAID vacation for at least another week while the funds to pay SNAP benefits runs out. I saw an angry quip on Facebook which said that the military and government workers should be paid during the shutdown but NOT the members of the House and Senate. I agree.

But as I read the piece I had the same thoughts I usually have reading about SNAP, ACA subsidies, Medicare and other programs Republicans love to threaten. If we had a truly just economic system people wouldn't need those benefits. That so many people rely on those benefits is a sad commentary on our Capitalist system. I remember pundits who pointed out during the Great Recession when Walmart workers were going to food banks and applying for SNAP that those workers earned so little they QUALIFIED for supports for the POOR even though they had jobs. And Walmart encouraged its workers to apply until the news got hold of the story and they quickly came out all disapproving and denying. I think they even fired a few of the workers who were interviewed. Capitalism has become a system that pays subsistence wages to the people who do the work which allows those at the top to live lavishly and the system is propped up by the society through taxes funding the subsidies that keep the workers body and soul together.

Richardson goes beyond the discussion over the ACA subsidies the Democrats are focused on and drills down into a basic philosophical difference between the two Parties and it is well worth reading all of the post.

This post from CORBIN TRENT AND AMERICA'S UNDOING had me giggling from the beginning--not because it was funny but I had to giggle or swear. I am trying to break myself of swearing so much. As a culture we have indeed convinced ourselves that cost equals value. I would add that in addition to cost we have been suckered by the notion that the more functions something has (whether you need them or they work well or not) the better. I have a flip phone and even that has more functionality than I need. Also we have been sold the fable that new is better. The latest model has more features so it must be better. About five years ago we gave up on the programable automatic coffee makers because we had to replace them about every three or four years. The plastic degraded with the heat and the tubing became clogged with mineral deposits. The first problem wasn't fixable and I could have cured the second by buying distilled water. Or buying a line cleaner to remove the sediments. But both are additional expenses on top of the cost of the machine. Now I use a pour through system and heat the water in a steel camping coffee pot on the stove. I clean the pot every week by leaving diluted white vinegar in it over night. I always keep vinegar on hand because it is so useful in cleaning generally. Often simple and cheap are better.

October 24

 Damn--we are almost at the end of another month. I got out this morning to run errands: bank, grocery store (needed a cake for Mom's birthday (turning 94 tomorrow) and some hamburger buns for the sloppy joes we are having for supper, pay rent, and fill up the car's gas tank. It is a nice day though cool enough to remind us that the seasons are changing definitely. The colors are coming up on the trees and some patches are very pretty. I can see a few areas which are stress from the dry conditions we have. The rain we got didn't do much for long.

Making good progress on needlework though for the last couple of days I haven't spent as much time as I would have liked because my concentration wasn't up to the task for long. I thought it better to just stop before I became too frustrated. That was a good strategy because I got a good bit done today on the granny hexagons and I have a good notion of what I will do with the project: a new shawl.

So now the errands are done and the needlework is put away. I am going through my e-mail.

 Does it really surprise anyone that the Administration is having some difficulties revamping up the numbers of ICE agents? Reports over the last couple of days indicate that recruits arrived for training without having been fully vetted, can't pass the minimal physical tests, were academically deficient, had failed drug tests and had criminal backgrounds. And the department has to offer $50K signing bonuses. I have read for years about how the military can't make their recruiting targets because so many of the prospective recruits are unfit, academically challenged, and often have failed drug tests or criminal backgrounds. Military recruiters have also resorted, last I heard, to offering signing bonuses and reenlistment bonuses.

Among the most annoying ads on TV are those urging viewers to bet on something, on anything. Given the long list of every possible aspect of any sporting event one can lay a wager on, the gambling scandal that has embroiled and embarrassed the NBA seems like it was always inevitable.

I remember seeing the obliteration of the White House Rose Garden and feeling like someone punched me in my gut. I was pained and breathless. And the soul-less, tasteless "patio" Trump put in so the cameras could get a clear shot of him walking along the path. The supreme narcissist couldn't abide having to share the frame with flowers. I had another emotion when I saw the gaudy gold embellishment's he slapped on the Oval Office--contempt for a man with such a fragile ego that he had to have such things to buck him up. And when he demolished the East Wing of the White House to build his Versailles on the Potomac, I was angry. This petty man had to erase part of a symbol of our country and a emblem of our history so he could pretend he was a true peer of the likes of Louis XIV, Vladimir Putin, or, perhaps, the Chinese emperors in their Forbidden City.

I have said before that the insurance business model is breaking (perhaps already broken). It is caught in a statistical scissors  because the costs of paying out on premiums are increasing while the population of people able to afford the premiums is shrinking as the middle class shrinks. That is playing holy hell with their bottom line. NBC posted this story which covers the choices facing ordinary people with the rise in costs because the extension of the subsidies for ACA insurance. People at my level of the socio-economic system have mostly bad choices. They can try to keep their insurance and find other expenses to trim (or cut out). [I wonder if anyone remembers stories in the late 1970s and early 1980s showing retirees eating cat/dog food because human grade meats were out of their reach because of inflation.] Or they can drop the insurance and pray they don't experience a major health catastrophe. But take a look at the chart in the article of the costs for ordinary medical treatments. How many have that much money in a savings account. Even those of us with Medicare would find it difficult to cover the 20% Medicare doesn't cover. I read once that treatment for a broken bone could add up to more than $10K--which means that the retiree would be on the hook for $2K.

I decided I wanted some cold cereal today so I picked up a box of Corn Chex when I went to the grocery store. The cost was $7 for the box (family size but the only one available in that variety.) I did check my usual supermarket on line and they had smaller boxes of the same cereal for much less but still considerably more than I remembered. To be honest, we haven't had cold cereal for several years. And I don't want the sweetened brands. I thought of that when I read this article on THE ECOLOGIST. In the back of my mind as I read all of the stories about effect of the tariffs on inflation generally and on food prices specifically was the question about the effects of our weird weather. Though the article concerns the situation in the U.K. We have had strange weather also and I haven't seen any information on what our harvests are like. But, as I remarked to Mom, I haven't seen any news that carried farm reports like they did when I was much younger. And I just read a small snippet that North China's grain producing region got flattened by storms and floods.

Paul Krugman has a few comments on Trump and his self aggrandizing style. Krugman mentioned Louis XIV and I suddenly remembered that the extravagance of the Sun King's court and of his grandson Louis XVI eventually led to the Revolution which cost the latter his throne and head.

One one of the people interviewed on a news/commentary show (sorry I can't remember who or which show) made some interesting comments on her recent trip to Canada and how the U.S. is viewed up there indicates that the trade relations won't be repaired very soon. From the license plates she saw the traffic was overwhelmingly Americans visiting Canada and returning to the States. Canadians used to come here often. Also ordinary people are making choices that basically remove U.S. products from their lives. No alcohol from U.S. producers on the shelfs. Replacing U.S. fruit and produce with Canadian grown. 

October 29

 Good sunny morning--it is still morning but not by much. We had intermittent rain, sometimes heavy, over the weekend. I took a break from blogging and, though I skimmed my e-mail, from commenting. Mom has been losing track of time often asking what day of the week or what month--sometimes even which year. The problem is that the days are so much the same that they blend together until we forget exactly what day it is. Well, the news is much the same. It blends to the point you don't remember lose track. I did finish the stitching on the Bavarian stitch blanket leaving only the tedious task of weaving in the threads. Also made some progress on the Tunisian stitch blanket but put it away earlier than I intended because I made a mistake and took out about a third of a row to fix it but then made the same mistake three times in the next row and had to repeat the process of pulling out and then restitching. Thankfully I caught the problem before it would have been a REAL PAIN to fix. I also got a good bit of the cross-stitch dresser scarf done. Another couple of stitching session and it will be done. I seem to be accomplishing a lot more constructive work than our politicians and I don't get six figure salaries.

On today's reading:

Bill Astore posted this on his BRACING VIEWS site. The notion that the U.S. would only be destroyed from within goes all the way back to the very establishment of our Constitution. Benjamin Franklin, according to one story some historians say is apocryphal, told a woman who asked what kind of government he and his associates had given the country said "a republic--if you can keep it."

In a rather ironic twist I just saw a story on the Weather Channel saying that a ski area at high elevation in Colorado is making snow in preparation for opening ski season but over the weekend I read a piece that noted three small ski towns in eastern France (not far from Switzerland and Italy) are closing permanently and dismantling their ski infrastructure. They have had several years where the snow falls have measured barely a third of what they had normally received. They don't expect the situation to improve in the near future.

I think I wrote about my brother's problems with trying to get some back surgery doctors recommended but the best hospital with the best surgeons to perform the procedure refused his insurance. It put him in a quandary because he has not only medicare but a Medicare Advantage plan provided by his former employer as part of his retirement package. However the insurance company was one that has been dropped by not only the hospital and its doctors but other specialists Brother used. The hospital and its doctors did Mom's spine surgery after her fall and they really are top notch. Luckily she dropped the union affiliated company several years ago after they put her medications into more expensive tiers which raised her costs nearly four times. Since then she went with another insurance company which the hospital did accept. This article found on NAKED CAPITALISM explains the problem. I concluded some time ago that that the Insurance business model is now in crisis phase. Whether in health care or in homeowners policies the costs to cover their customers is strangling them. Replacing covered property after disasters or covering covered medical procedures is simply too costly. But customers are in a quandary because we have come to depend on the insurance. My brother found a doctor who agreed to look at his situation and gave him some very different advice. He said that he could do the surgery but given Brothers medical history he doubted it would really improve his condition. Brother is exploring alternatives. If Mom hadn't had the insurance she has the cost of her surgery would have not only wiped us both out but left a massive debt we couldn't have paid off given we are both on Social Security. 

October 15

 Good rainy morning to you all. The rain was not in the forecast yesterday but I won't complain because I don't have to water the hibiscus plants or the petunias. We are just about at the average first frost date but it hasn't happened yet--not even close. So let's see what is in my reading lists today.

First up is this article from the Guardian. I have read several articles about the looming insurance crisis here in the U.S. Those have concentrated on California and the Gulf Coast but the prices for homeowners insurance is going up all over the country. Well, we aren't the LONE RANGERS, kiddos. The U.K. is evidently having similar problems.

And then there is this report about the aftermath of typhoon Halong on the west coast of Alaska early on Monday. I saw this on the news feeds early this morning but haven't seen much on the broadcast news except for sporadic snippets on the Weather Channel.

Anyone remember when we thought MEASLES had been eradicated in the U.S.? W-e-l-l, that isn't at all true any more. South Carolina looks like it might continue the outbreak that started in Texas and New Mexico. I won't blame Bobby Kennedy, Jr., since vaccine skepticism has been growing for the last 30 years or so. His policies won't help going forward.

October 14

 Sort of overcast today. However, the forecast says no rain. The weather for the next week should be partly sunny with temps in the 60s and 70s and rain on two days--maybe. The news is giving Trump plenty of attention as the Gaza "truce" starts. His appearance with Netanyahu at the Knesset yesterday was covered in way too much detail. A few commentators noted the glaring omission from all the politicians remarks--the Palestinians. And I don't count the references to Hamas as references to the larger group of Palestinians. They aren't the same just as MAGA isn't the same as Americans generally.

However, the remarks in Jerusalem were of a piece with other actions taken by the Trump administration. A blogger I read almost every day had some remarks on his executive order on "Columbus Day." I didn't make a note of the post so I can't link to it. But it basically makes the "discovery" of the American continent the most momentous event in Western History. In the process he erases a good part of that history--the theft of Native land and the attempts to erase Native cultures. It shouldn't be a surprise since the administration has tried to erase mentions of the achievements of African Americans, women, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, and non-fundamentalist Christians from our history. One commentator this morning noted an observation I had made the Trump agenda is to focus solely on aspects of 1776 while skipping over 1619 (or much else of pre-Revolutionary history.)  That interviewee asked why (as I did some time ago) why they can't acknowledge the good with the bad, Yes, African slavery in the U.S. began in 1619; but, representative legislative government in Virginia began with the establishment of the  House of Burgesses also in 1619.

As Trump basked in the adulation showered on him in Jerusalem I had other thoughts: 1) George W. Bush appearing on that aircraft carrier under the "Mission Accomplished" banner (but our military presence in the Middle East didn't end until that disastrous exit from Afghanistan a couple of years ago), or 2) the several truce agreements that never survived the first stage and the release of part of the Israeli hostages. Let's see if they can keep the agreement together.

Joyce Vance posted an article today asking "ARE WE THE NAZIS NOW?". Actually, the question may be more on point than you would think. It started the gears of my memory working and what came up first was an adventure/mystery novel THE LEAGUE OF NIGHT AND FOG. I don't remember much of the novel but I do remember that I was intrigued by the link between the title and Nazi Germany and wondered if it was fictional or real.A bit of exploration led me to the NIGHT AND FOG (NACHT UND NEBEL) DECREE where the Nazi government legitimized extreme measures against any one in occupied territories could be kidnapped and murdered or disappeared at whim. Relatives were specifically forbidden from giving any relatives who enquired from giving any information about their fate. They simply disappeared into the night and fog. Resemble anything you have seen lately?

October 11

 Sunny and cool. The forecast for the next week and a half says we will have temperatures in the 60s and low 70s and no rain. I am about ready to take out the last flowers--the hibiscus and petunias. I have almost got the containers rearranged and have a couple I want to empty and get rid of. I am getting to the end of the Bavarian stitch baby blanket and the latest Tunisian afghan so I am looking at possible new projects. I probably won't have to get any new yarn because I found I still had a large amount of both fingering and light worsted weight yarns. It is a good idea to rearrange your stash every now and then get reacquainted with what you have. I have some new lacy patterns that would work for the baby yarn and I saw an interesting Tunisian variation for the worsted yarn. I also brought out some of my crochet thread to work up a simple Bruges lace crochet. But for now my chili is about an hour from done so lets start looking at my e-mail.

Any one else think it was weird the Trump decided to go in for a second physical exam since he entered office? I think the various questions of his physical (and mental) health are getting to him. He has tried for so long to pretend he isn't what he is an old man--the oldest to be inaugurated. Remember when he tried to keep his blond hair and it often appeared orange? Does anyone really believe he weighs 224 pounds?

This doesn't sound good at all. The story focuses on the recent news that Musk's satellite network is losing 2 or 3 per day but notes that that will probably rise to 5 per day within a decade. Those satellites have projected lifespans of 5 years. How much trash that fails to burn up will fall to earth? Or what happens if Musk's people fail to direct one of those toward earth and it collides with another satellite?