Lions and Lambs

Listening to Vivaldi's Fourth Season on the way to work, I was musing on the piece's appropriateness.   After a week in the sun with the Divine Mrs. M., the weekend was a rude shock.  Three inches of slush on Sunday morning with off and on snow all day with temps in the 30s felt more like a slight thaw in January than the end of March.  If there is a quick turnaround in the weather this week and next, the summer growing season should come off as scheduled.  If this weather hangs on, it will become more dicey as to when planting will start.  By this time last year,  tractors were in the fields and crops were being planted.   Meanwhile, a United Nations committee on climate change is warning in a new report that conditions in coastal areas around the world will become increasingly dire as ice sheets continue to melt and  new atmospheric conditions are exacerbating problems in tropical growing areas.   It is somewhat ironic that climate deniers in the US continue to get positive feedback from the unusually cold conditions in the eastern US, while the impacts of our profligacy are visited on the world's poorest residents.  They did not share in the gains brought by the industrial revolution, but they will certainly get more than their share of the pain caused by the climate fall out from it.

Back in the USA

Landed last night at 11:30 and it was like we never left...  Dirty snow and cold.  After the warmth and sun in Cancun, it was definitely a shock to the system.  The good thing is we didn't miss any spring.   The bad thing is we didn't miss any spring.   

Oh Mexico

Light blogging for the next week as the Divine Mrs. M and myself sample the pleasures of Cancun.

A different view

A column in the NYT this morning points out the living standards of hundreds of millions of workers around the world have increased at the same time middle and working class Americans have seen wage stagnation and job insecurity.  Meanwhile, the 1% have continued to increase their share of the country's wealth by investing in China, Viet Nam, et al.  The vaunted tech jobs and information age occupations which were supposed to power middle class growth have largely been created or exported to India, China and other developing nations.  Meanwhile, Germany has continued as an export powerhouse, creating lots of high paying jobs for its workers.  We, on the other hand have continued to pile up huge trade deficits as we import many of the things we used to make from the same countries who have taken the information jobs.  We know the whole world cannot be export driven the way China and Germany are, but our economy cannot provide the market for the rest of the world if we cannot pay our own workers enough to purchase these imports.  There is no easy solution to these problems, but trade deals like the Trans Pacific Partnership will only exacerbate current trends and feed the growing unrest in this country.

generational angst

NPR has been running 2 series of stories which dovetail into an unsparing view of the future.  Starting with the GI Bill of Rights after world war 2, college education became more of a middle class phenomenon rather than something only the elite could take advantage.   As the baby boom generation came of age, we took advantage of the massive expansion of college campuses which were built to serve veterans.  Further expansion created the expectation virtually everyone could and would attain a degree.   Meanwhile, the manufacturing jobs which earlier generations used as a gateway to the middle class were being stripped and sent to the third world.  Now we have a highly trained and indebted class of graduates.  But the "information economy" is not generating the numbers of highly paid jobs envisioned by policymakers.  Instead, most of the rewards are going to the elite 1% of the population.   Many 4 year graduates are now asking "Do you want fries with that", the pain is evident.   Meanwhile, the parents of said grads are slowly realizing the comfortable retirement they envisioned is receding as they get closer to it.  The combination of stagnant wages, college debt and rising prices has trapped many boomers into a choice of either toiling until they die, or accepting a retirement into poverty and hardship.   Aside from those with defined benefit pension plans, i.e. teachers, cops, firemen and state employees, most of my contemporaries have $10,000 or less saved for retirement.    The kids need help, the parents need even more, and the politicians say we need to cut vital benefits and slash taxes for the "job creators".   I think I see pitchforks  (or AK 47s) in our future.

Late spring

It's 10 below zero as I write this diatribe against winter.  Snow in DC, frigid temps throughout the Northeast and seemingly no end in sight to the season of our discontent.   The long range forecast shows snow here stretching into next week and beyond.  The NCR is now the North Country Tundra (NCT) and will remain so until Lake Champlain is ice free.  It is harder to find a reason to be optimistic about the weather than it is to find clues about the missing Malaysian Airlines plane.  Usually by now I have the cold frames in the garden heating up for planting.  They are buried under a foot of snow and ice.  The maple syrup makers should be in full swing right now, but until daytime temps rise above 40 degrees and nighttimes stay above 20, there will be little sap flowing.   These weeks can't be made up, as the maple sap run will end as the trees leaf out.   They will try to do so as soon as possible, ending  the season.  For the rest of us, hope springs eternal, but the longer spring is delayed, the less early season planting will be done and the more we will pin our hopes on later crops.  No one ever said this was easy, or fair.

saber rattling

As Russian troops mass at the Ukrainian border and the talking heads wring their hands with John McCain, it looks like the shoe is firmly on the other foot.   In the run up to the Iraq war, as I recall, Russia was on the side of the angels, counseling patience and warning of dire consequences.  While the current Russian state may not be the equal of the West in economic or military power, it far eclipses the Yeltsin led corrupt shell of the Soviet Union.   Had the Russia of 2002 had the petro dollars and military power of its contemporary self available, we might have thought harder before invading Iraq, although looking at the Bushies, I doubt it.  I only hope the Russkies are smarter than the Americans in 2002.  Otherwise, we will be in for Cold War redux, with all the attendant fears of nuclear holocaust.

Digging out

Paul Ryan and I were both digging out this morning.  Me from a 10 inch snowfall and he from the racist dog whistle he was blowing at his supposed base.   It was a lot easier blowing snow, I think.  Ryan's assertion there is a culture of non-work in the inner cities (read "lazy black men") is just another attempt to pit the poor and working classes against each other to the detriment of their interests.   When he tried to walk back this too blatant racism, he claimed he was against poverty everywhere, including rural areas where there were no jobs.  So now, white poverty is equated with no opportunity while black poverty is a culture of laziness.  I am wondering how he will answer the inevitable questions regarding this dichotomy.  The cluelessness of the modern Republican party is breathtaking.

One for the Road

Looks like Mother Nature saved her best punch for the end of the season.   The prediction is 12-20 inches of snow for the NCR today and tomorrow.  Between the snow and cold, this winter has been one for the record books.   The Divine Mrs. M and I are heading for Mexico next week and it looks like we will be missing the (hopefully) last gasps of Old Man Winter.  The gardening season will be delayed by this late bout of weather, which means when it does start it will be all at once.  But we won't think about it while we are in the land of Margaritas and guacamole. 

Gender roles for the future

NPR had an interesting discussion of gender roles as the millennial generation begins to take the reins from their parents and become the standard bearers of social mores.  The woman being interviewed had written a book describing her struggles to have a full time career and manage home, children and spousal expectations.  Having done a similar scenario with the Divine Mrs.M, I was interested to hear a different take on the balancing act required to satisfy all parties.  The major difference was the insistence by the woman that her career should have equal importance with her husband's. I have a feeling it didn't always work that way.  Each generation since the 50's has re-defined gender stereotypes and despite a ferocious rear guard action, there is more and more equality in career and child raising between the sexes.  Especially now when the woman is generally more educated and career oriented than the man.  The pendulum is still swinging and the near future will feature Mr. Mom as often as Mrs.  It's a brave new world my grandchildren will inherit.

60 is the new....

Feel free to fill in the blank at the end of the title.  Right now it feel like the new 80 for me.  For years I have told myself I can do anything my 25 year old self could do, but now I'm starting to feel the effect of the pounding my knees have taken in the service of that belief.   I suppose it would have happened anyway, but osteo-arthritis, or Uncle Art as some older friends have called it seems to have taken up residence in my right knee.   As a certified baby boomer, I went to my specialist secretly hoping he would tell me there was a surgical fix that would have me back to my 30s in no time.  Unfortunately, the advice was to manage the pain and try a cortisone injection.  If that doesn't work, there is a gradually escalating series of intervention, culminating in a knee replacement.  Ugh.  I guess I'll just soldier on and take what comes.  Gardening season is coming and my knees are intimately involved in the endeavor, so I'll follow doctor's orders and hope for the best. 

South Winds

It was a balmy 15 degrees when I stepped out of my car this morning.  While that may seem cold to many people, it was 25 degrees warmer than yesterday.   The forecast is for a high of 37 today.  It's time to break out the shorts and flip-flops!   Checking my crops in the basement last night showed most of them up and growing.  I'll transplant them into individual cells this coming weekend and keep them growing on inside until mid April whcn they can go out to the cold frames and finally into the garden by mid to late May.  That's the plan, but of course, many things can go wrong between now and then.  Gardening, like life, is fraught with challenges, but as in life the rewards can also be outsized.  The Divine Mrs. M and I have cultivated out life's garden and it looks like our first grandchild will arrive at about the same time as some of these basement flowers are blooming in the garden.   Welcome additions in both cases and harbingers of the bounty to come.   Meanwhile, we anticipate warmer weather and more daylight as March gives way to April and spring.

Anti-anti Poverty

Paul Ryan and the rest of the republicans have decided they know how to end poverty in the US.  Just defund and decimate virtually all programs designed to help the poor and the moochers and takers will somehow become self sufficient.  No minimum wage increase, a slight increase in the earned income tax credit and big cuts to the SNAP (food stamp) program will somehow lift a mother of two out of poverty.  Of course to get anything on the EITC, you have to make some money and that is hard if you are toiling for Walmart or Mickey D.  If you even have a job to begin with.  With most entry level manufacturing jobs offshored to China or Vietnam and 3 or more applicants for what is  left, employment is perhaps the most pressing issue of all.  But Ryan's plan doesn't even address jobs.  It is mostly and excursion into punishing the poor for the crime of being that way.  As a society, we believe in "equality of opportunity".  In practice, equality ends about 5 minutes after conception.  A baby growing inside a poor woman will not get the same care as one inside her wealthy counterpart.  After birth, poor diet, random care arrangements, little exposure to learning before school age and sporadic health care combine to permanently handicap low income children.  While there may be waste and abuse in present anti-poverty programs, the approach our policy elites  seem to choose is to eliminate most of them without seriously addressing the underlying problems.  To really lift people out of poverty, the first step is a guaranteed income.  By freeing people from the worry associated with putting food on the table and a roof over their heads, the mcjobs will have to offer more money to get anyone to take them.  This floor will also increase the remuneration for middle class jobs like teaching, firefighting, etc.   The key of course is to get the defense budget, the 1% and corporations to pay for it.  In the long run, the taxes paid and money spent in the economy by the newly empowered lower and middle classes will lead to new prosperity.  We need the courage to make the changes necessary to implement this vision.

Putin envy

If you listen to Rudy Guiliani or Sarah Palin, you would trade our own Kenyan Muslim Socialist usurper for that Decisive Bear Wrestling Man of the People, Vladimir Putin.   While simultaneously slamming the President as an overbearing tyrant and a weak vacillator, the republicans let slip their secret desire for the strong decisive leader of foreign policy who will whisk us into another righteous war that these keyboard commandos can fight with other people's children's blood and sacrifice.  Do something, Mr. Obama is urged.  But of course, no matter what he does, he will be pilloried by the right wing.  Meanwhile, the naked aggression of the Russians looks more and more like the invasion of Iraq.  At least Putin has the fig leaf of real Russians who may or may not be worried by Ukrainian nationalists.  All the US had when we invaded Iraq was a cache of non-existent WMD.  So, there is very little moral authority behind any of our protestations against Putin.  These idiots on the right seem to recall a period when US military might and our democratic history combined to give us ultimate world authority.  That was probably true for a few years during and after WW2.  We quickly squandered whatever good will we had with a series of CIA sponsored coups around the world, culminating in the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba and the quagmire of Vietnam.  The glory of the Marshall Plan devolved into the spread of an American Empire.  With this history behind us, Obama has very little wiggle room on Ukraine, Syria, Iran and many other intractable political problems around the world.  All of a sudden, avoiding another World War is the number one priority.  The yapping of the likes of Palin, Graham and McCain is mindless at best and mendacious and dangerous in an interdependent world which cannot afford to indulge in saber rattling fantasies.

Solutions to the Geezer problem

The Nice Polite Republicans on NPR have a solution for the aging baby boom population as it tries to retire with dignity.  Start applying for those Walmart greeter positions now and beat the rush.  The genial host had the author of a new book on and proceeded to host a fact free overview of Social Security which led off with the assertion that "the system will be broke in 15-20 years".  Instead of asking the author how he came up with this nugget, David Green then allowed him to invite the millennial generation to slash their parents benefits in the interest of fairness.  Most boomers have very little retirement savings due to sluggish economic growth over the past 30 years.  For many, keeping a roof over their heads and food on the table eats most of their salaries.   Many companies have discontinued the defined benefit pension plans earlier generations counted on for retirement and the 401 K disaster has benefitted the companies administering them instead of the holders of the plans.  Besides, many could not contribute to them or had to withdraw what was in them to meet current expenses.  The book's author didn't have much to say about what the retiring generation could do to cushion their impending drop into poverty, and the interviewer seemed more interested in plugging the book than exploring solutions to the problem.   Some experts are actually proposing a boost in Social Security benefits to offset the lack of retirement savings!  However, it will take some clear eyed leadership to raise the necessary taxes and cut the bloated military budget in order to make this happen.  Unfortunately, I see mobs of little old ladies with pitchforks besieging the White House if something is not done. 

Green Shoots

Maybe.  In week or two.  What I mean is the gardening season has started!  Regardless that it feels like mid January, I have 8 different varieties of veg and flower seeds in starter flats in the basement.  Somehow it just feels like spring despite the below zero start this morning.  I only planted stuff that needs 8-10 weeks or more before outdoor transplant time.  Rosemary, celeriac, celosia etc, are all varieties which must have a long season to reach maturity before frost.   The peppers, tomatoes, eggplant and other shorter season crops can wait til the end of March.  Even if these early seedings fall prey to neglect during vacation, at least I'll have the feeling Spring is on the way.