Hot times

As even casual readers of this blog know, I complain about the weather.  Most of us who grow significant amounts of vegetables or fruits fret about extremes of weather last week it was too cool in the morning.  This week promises to be too hot for the first week of Sept. on the NCR.  Mid to upper 80s with dry weather except for isolated T-Storms on Thursday is a good recipe to ripen many crops, but most of those were drowned by the incessant rain we had earlier in the season.  The majority of the replacements I planted and transplanted are cool season crops which don't need hot and dry conditions to mature.  The lettuces and brassicas would do well in much cooler conditions.  I still have to transplant the last two lettuce schedules along with some nappa cabbage and bok choy.  That will require a lot of hand watering to get the plants off to a reasonable start.   On the brighter side, we harvested enough tomatoes over the weekend to make a large batch of sauce.  The tomatoes hung in during the worst of the rain and while not a bumper crop, at least there will be some to harvest.  Doubtless next week will bring more weather to distress me.

Cool mornings

Although warmer weather is predicted, it is in the low 50s this morning and it feels like fall.  I still have a couple more plantings of lettuce, bok choy and nappa cabbage, and it's time for planting spinach to overwinter.   But the end of the season is in sight.  As anyone reading this blog knows, it has been a very wet summer here on the NCR and many of the summer crops have suffered due to excessively wet soil.  Now, the opposite is happening.  We have had very little rain for the past 2 weeks and none is predicted over the next 10 days.  There is still abundant soil moisture, but the root systems are all in the top few inches of soil and can't readily move to where the water is.  The bottom line, we need rain again, or the a lot of planting and weeding will have been in vain.  Of course, I'll continue the fight.   Wet or dry, the foolishness continues.

Refugee Armageddon

The latest story of refugee exodus involves Syrians trying to escape the turmoil in their own country by migrating to Germany and Sweden, both of which have liberal resettlement policies.  Unfortunately, in order to get to these promised lands, they have to run the gauntlet of the Balkan countries and Hungary.  The latter is now constructing a 100 mile wall of razor wire to keep the migrants out.  Or at least that is what the government is telling its xenophobic population.  This is just a precursor of what is to come around the world.  Here in America, we have The Donald bragging about a 1000 mile wall across the southern border to keep out illegals.  In Asia, the Malaysians are keeping out refugees from Myanmar and India is trying to stem the flow of Bangladeshis.  As sea levels rise and the political systems around the world try to deal with an ever  increasing tide of migrants trying to escape ecological and political catastrophes, the Golden Rule is being ignored and replaced by a "I've got mine" mentality which bodes ill for a world facing a rising tide of homeless, hopeless people, beggared by policies they had no hand in making.

Trump as the new Evangelical savior

In any right thinking evangelical's mind, Donald Trump is the closest thing to the anti-Christ as there has been in a long time.  While he is not a smooth talker, Trump plays to the hopes and fears of Americans who are increasingly unnerved by the pace of change in modern life.  He focuses on the fear of immigrants, probably because they have little or no defense against his rhetoric.  But behind this bashing of the "others" among us is the unstated belief that women, minorities, the LGBT community and anyone else looking for equality with white men are out of luck in The Donald's world.  Paul Krugman gets it right this morning when he notes that Trump's support on the religious right wing of the Republican party gives the lie to the movement's faith based conservatism.  It's all about retaining white male privilege in a multicultural world.  The men and women of the megachurch milieu want to go back to the 1950s when everyone knew their place and was resigned to whatever station their birth designated them.  If Sarah Palin was the first model of the new evangelical populist, Donald Trump is the new edition; white, male, wealthy and unafraid to espouse intolerance.  So what if he is divorced multiple times, owns casinos and probably hasn't paid a dime in taxes in the new millennium.  He is perhaps the last hope of the dead end haters who blame everyone else for the death of mid twentieth century America.

Three Amigos plus one

The heroic actions of three Americans and a Brit, taking down a potential mass murderer on a high speed train in France was a welcome distraction from the cascade of bad news plaguing the world of late.   Quick thinking and disregard for their own safety enabled the young men to prevent a tragedy.  It makes us feel by association that we might also be capable of something similar if we were presented with the same alternatives.  It's a comforting, if somewhat unrealistic view in a Walter Mitty world.

Beautiful Weekend

Late summer weather on the NCR includes many beautiful days with bright sunshine and low humidity.  When they happen in succession on a weekend, it opens a plethora of choices of what to do.  The Divine Mrs. M and I hiked through a local tourist destination, High Falls Gorge, in Wilmington, New York.   We enjoyed the experience, along with lunch at a local landmark diner in Keene Valley, then back to the house where weeding, mowing and planting awaited attention.  Got a remarkable amount accomplished, but much more needs to get done.  We are approaching the season of harvest only, my favorite time of the gardening year. 

Might as well Trump

With apologies to Van Halen, their hit "Jump" would be the perfect theme song for The Donald's campaign.  The opening  line alone is perfect; "I get up and nothing gets me down".  It only goes on from there and the infectious chorus; "Might as well jump" just needs to be changed to "Might as well Trump" to tap into the current American zeitgeist.  Why go with Jeb! or Rand or some other loser politician when you can have a celebrity like Trump who says outrageous things and trivializes the world's problems and the people who try to solve them.  Might as well Trump, indeed.

The Donald and the Kingfish

The Donald's appeal to a certain segment of the American electorate should come as no surprise to anyone with a passing acquaintance with our history.  From the "know nothing" party of the 1840s to the present, there is an undertone of intolerance and animosity toward immigrants and people of color.  This hatred is often wrapped in populism.  One of the most famous examples of this type of populism is Huey Long.  A governor of Louisiana during the great Depression, Long was a self promoting politician who started as a supporter of FDR, but eventually broke with him and in league with the racist priest Charles Coughlin planned a presidential campaign in 1936.  Personal scandals eventually broke his dreams, but in his heyday, he appealed to the same sort of "ugly American" that Trump seems to have found.  The difference is Long was a politician who actually got things done for his constituents and ran campaigns based on issues, albeit wrapped in a racist, immigrant bashing agenda.  Trump is a pure narcissist who has no agenda other than pulling down his rivals and basking in the media attention his candidacy has attracted.  The scary part of this whole scenario is that he taps into the deep hatred the Republican party has stirred up against government as something good for the people.  Instead there is a call for destruction with no alternative.   That a billionaire buffoon should ride this wave of solipsistic anarchy to become the nominee of a major political party is to call the whole American experiment into question.  Even the Kingfish would have had second thoughts.

Down to the Wire

I transplanted the last sowings of lettuce and Chinese cabbage to the secondary bed last night.  I stopped seeding transplants last week, so aside from spinach and turnips, I am done with seeding for the season.   It's always a bittersweet transition as the growing season comes to an end and I begin spending more time weeding and harvesting.  The late summer stars like tomatoes, peppers and beans are becoming more available and the larger plantings of broccoli and cauliflower are starting to head up.  Weeds are the big focus right now, but I still have 4 more transplant beds of lettuce to put out, so I guess it will be a while before the last salad of the season lands in a bowl.

Guilty pleasures and similar personalities

Listening to a disembodied voice pontificate on Tiger Wood's place in the pantheon of golf heroes is probably not what most people would choose to listen to on a drive to work.   The essentially ridiculous nature of the discussion on the PGA channel on XM radio embarrassed me enough to change the channel to another staple on my radio, MSNBC, where Joe Scarborough was holding forth on Marco Rubio and his chances at the Republican nomination for president.  The similarity was striking and I began to wonder what it says about the frontal cortex of someone who listens to such drivel on a regular basis.

Republicans and the social contract

Virtually every Republican candidate now says we have to drastically curtail the social security system to avoid massive cuts in the future.  Of course they neglect to mention there are easy fixes available right now, like lifting the cap for contributions from $118,000 to unlimited.  By requiring people making millions each year to contribute 6% to Social Security, the system will be funded for the next 75 years.  Of course, the donors to the republican candidates view the entire SS system with disdain or outright hatred.   Many democrats are calling for expansion of the system as at least a partial replacement for the pensions which are not being offered by most companies today.  In the present employment scenario, many, if not most people will have several careers with different companies.  Most will not offer any retirement plans aside from an underfunded 401 K plan.  In the future, more and more retirees will depend on Social Security for most of their income.  There is a clear difference between the major political parties on this issue.  Where will most Americans stand...DUH!

Greedy Geezers and the Social Safety Net

Throughout most of mankind's history, the elderly have been seen as a disposable resource.   As long as they could contribute to the common good they were tolerated, but once seen as a drag on scarce resources, in most societies they were encouraged to hurry up and die.  Most western democracies have changed that dynamic with social security and other old age pension mechanisms.   These programs allow the elderly to live out their natural spans in relative comfort.  In the US, the Social Security program is celebrating its 80th anniversary and it remains very popular among young and old alike.  It is remarkable that Republicans fought against the program from its inception through the present and yet seem to pay few penalties for their opposition to it and Medicare, which is celebrating its 50th year.  I think most of us can't imagine a society in which the old are consigned to poverty or begging their progeny for shelter, but if it was up to one of the major political parties, we would be heading back to a time where the elderly were considered a mixed blessing at best.  Both Social Security and Medicare need attention if they are to be preserved for future generations.  The fixes are relatively easy at this time, but they require political will and a nudge from voters.  The Tea Party and their ilk, relatively wealthy, older, white Americans seem to feel we can't afford dignity for those of us who didn't win the lottery or inherit wealth or make the many decisions which lead to comfortable retirement.  We need to elect people who would continue an honorable tradition of care for the previous generations.

Crawling through the jungle

I have rarely seen such luxuriant weed growth in any gardening season, and I have been doing this for 40 years.  It was too wet to do much except pull big weeds last night and I was amazed at how healthy and fecund they were.   Usually by the middle of August, heat and drought has slowed the pests and many are throwing out seed heads.  Lately, the red root pigweed and galinsoga have gotten gigantic with nary a seedhead in sight.  With more rain predicted, it's looking like a long term problem for the rest of the season.  As always, the pests seem to outcompete the crops, kind of like The Donald among the republican candidates.  I wonder what Roundup would do to his hair.

Good News, Bad News

Turned on the radio this morning and as usual, the news was bad for Hillary and wonderful for Bush.  Clinton's use of a private server for her e-mails as Secretary of  State is universally proclaimed as a terrible faux pas by virtually every pundit.  Meanwhile, aside from the 30% of voters who thought the Shrub was a great president no one really cares how Ms. Clinton sent or received e-mails.  The system of classifying government documents is so byzantine, I'm sure the dog food served to the Obama's dogs is a top secret "need to know" document somewhere.  The whole "scandal" is a nothingburger which aligns with the Clinton rules.  Meanwhile, Shrub's little brother decides it is time to blame the entire mess in the Middle East on the present administration and there is no pushback from the media.  They merely report the outrageous tripe he spewed at the Reagan library in front of a friendly crowd as if it were gospel.  Without Bush, there would have been no broken Iraq which spawned the Islamic State, but no commenters managed to make that factual leap when reporting the story.  Such is the state of the media today.

Rainy Day not so Blues

While I hesitate to say it, the garden could use a good rain.  The last time I expressed this opinion the NCR got a 3 week deluge that most gardeners and farmers with heavy soil have still not recovered from.  So while I welcome a rainy day, I hope it is more limited in scope than last time.  I hustled home last night and put in some spinach, turnips, daikon and beets.  The beets are probably wishful thinking, although a mild fall could help them mature before the inevitable freeze.  I can hardly wait for the first meeting of "Gardeners Anonymous" next spring.  Hopefully it will keep me from diving headfirst into another season of disappointment.

It's the Obama--Stupid

The biggest hurdle the eventual Republican candidate will face is how to portray the last 8 years as a failure of policy.  All the "can't miss" issues, the economy, obamacare, foreign policy, have all been successes to some degree.  So, aside from the 25-30% who believe Obama is the antichrist, what have the occupants of the clown car got.  At the recent debate, attacks on Donald Trump obscured the fact that aside from god, guns and gays, most of the candidates were more interested in attacking Hillary than the president.  The scenario is looking more and more like the 1988 election where the elder Bush succeeded Reagan by if not running on St. Ronnie's record at least not running away from it.  That would seem to be a wise choice for the eventual Democratic nominee.

Comings and goings

Jon Stewart signed off last night with a parting salute from the Boss.   Going out to the strains of "Born to Run", Stewart left us with a parting sermon on the detection of Bullshit in America.  Any organization which uses titles like "Americans for Patriotic Freedom Family Values and Economics" is sniff worthy.   Of course, he could have been talking about the Republican Freak Show on Fox last night.  The odor of bull by-products was detectable all the way from Cleveland as the Chris Wallace, Megyn Kelly and Bret Bair did their best to undermine The Donald to the advantage of the rest of the Clown Car.  It remains to be seen if their efforts will show up in the next set of polls.  Trump remained defiant amid some audience booing when he refused to pledge to support the eventual GOP nominee.    I hope Stewart remains a public figure during the rest of the run-up to the 2016 elections.   We need his brand of wise satire as an antidote to the BS which will be pitched by both parties.

The Clown Car Follies

For those with cast iron stomachs and a taste for irony, tonight should be amusing, to say the least.   At 9 p.m. after the JV game, the "heavyweights" of the republican presidential field will square off for a softball game with Faux News.  Immediately following that broadcast, Jon Stewart will make his farewell to the Daily Show on the Comedy Channel.  He couldn't have possibly planned the laugh-fest with the Fox News debate in mind....  Oh well, I'll have to try and stay awake long enough to get Stewart's take on the highs and lows of the 3 ring circus he will be following.  As a lifelong Democrat who sometimes veers to the left of Bernie Sanders, watching the debate tonight will be like trying to decipher some sort of alien code.  How any rational being with even a smidgeon of compassion for his fellow man can buy into any of the nonsense being peddled by this collection of candidates is way beyond me.  The guiding philosophy of the 2015 Republican party seems to be to use what's left of the government to shovel benefits to the 1% while telling the rest of us this wholesale theft is in our best interests.  At least the Roman Empire provided bread and circuses for the plebes in the capital city.   I hope Jon Stewart remains a gadfly during this election cycle.  We need a few intentional laughs during the next 16 months.

Marketing in the depths of summer

As we approach the home stretch of summer, the living may be easy, but the selling is not.  This year, the run up to Labor Day is one long slog as growers and brokers try to keep crops moving in an orderly fashion.   While there are a few hot items in the produce fields, most of the veg is moving with glacial slowness.  Over many years I have heard just about every excuse for the August swoon.  Everyone is on vacation, it is too hot, the economy is down, everyone is spending on back to school.  It's the dog ate my homework syndrome.  Personally, I have always felt it is a combination of the above, plus the glut of local produce running into the established year round distribution system from California and foreign sources.  If anything, people use more produce this time of year, but the cornucopia available overwhelms our ability to eat it all.   That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

Coming to terms with climate change

The President is tackling the climate issue via regulation, since he expects to get no help from Congress in this regard.  Even the most virulent critics of the science behind the changing weather are not directly questioning the theory of human induced change.  They have just decided to fight any tactic used by the government to combat the change.   It is amazing to me that the men behind this obstruction, fathers and grandfathers all can't seem to look beyond the fight at the moment and realize the horrific legacy they are bequeathing their children and grandchildren.  I guess they believe the 1% will be able to ride out the worst of the effects in gated communities protected from the elements as the rest of the population is left to fend for themselves.  Floods, drought, fires and increasingly violent storms will certainly exert a Darwinian influence on billions of people in coming generations.   What will future historians, if there are any, think of the men and women who are leading the obstructionists.

Blissful ignorance

I spent the weekend in the same position as seemingly 90% of the US population; totally ignorant of political trends.  Most of Saturday and a good bit of Sunday I caught up on transplanting, fertilizing, weeding and mowing with time off to babysit granddaughters and pick the produce for a family dinner on Sunday evening.  Five minutes into listening to Morning Joe on the radio and I began to see why most people are turned off by politics, at least the way it is practiced by Washington and NY pundits.  As always, any news is good news for Republicans and bad news for Democrats.  Obama can do nothing right and the culture wars are dissected ad nauseum with the right winning on every issue.  It's enough to make me want to listen to the nice polite republicans on NPR.  At least they have to wear the fig leaf of impartiality.