To a long, mild fall

Just two more weeks at the farmer's market, but there remains quite a bit of late crops out in the gardens.  Late broccoli and cauliflower continue to grow, although they would grow faster with a little moisture.  The last plantings of carrots and broccoli are coming on as well.  There is and will be a bumper crop of spinach.  I'm harvesting the last row of potatoes for storage.  The winter squash is in the garage curing before storage.  The last rows of sweet corn will be harvested for market this weekend, since the Divine Mrs. M and I will be on Long Island for niece Emma's wedding.  Still waiting for the Brussels sprouts which were severely damaged by a flea beetle infestation to come around.  The long range forecast is for a wet and mild fall followed by a cold winter.  We'll see, but in the short term, I'm rooting for several more mild weekends for golf and gardening.

Globalization and the backlash

Despite literally hundreds of statements and incidents which would have disqualified any other candidate for president, Donald Trump continues to stay close to Hillary in the polls.  Many pundits lay this at the feet of Ms. Clinton, saying she is an historically unpopular candidate.  Of course, when she left her post as Secretary of State, she was the most admired woman in America, with a 61% approval rating.  What changed?   I would posit the theory Trump has allowed America's collective Id to express itself.  Why did this bigoted son of privilege become a touchstone for mostly middle aged and elderly white people who are certainly not rich.  Globalization, with its destruction of many middle American communities is certainly to blame for some of it.  The revolution of rising expectations for blacks, latinos, women and the LGBT community is another reason.  Loss of traditional white privilege is another.   Finally, the strategy of a major political party to base its appeal on intolerance has unleashed the forces which led to a demagogic racist as its standard bearer.  It is a complicated stew of economic, social and political misery and we will be dealing with it for decades.  I don't know if Hillary fully understands the Pandora's box republicans have opened, but it will be impossible to shut in the short run.  Her first order of business will be to deal with the wreckage of broken lives that capital mobility has left in its wake.  The very existence of our democracy depends on it.

It's Roger Ailes world and we have to live in it

A weird alternate reality took hold on nearly half of America in the wake of the first Presidential debate.  While a pretty large majority of those who actually watched the debate came away impressed by Hillary's performance and depressed that one of the two major parties could possibly have nominated The Donald as its candidate.  Then, overnight, the "Fox effect" came into play.  Trump appeared on several shows and claimed the Drudge report certified him as the winner.  Limbaugh chimed in and a tidal wave of right wing websites suddenly found their voices and proceeded to tell their credulous supporters they could believe the latest black is white, up is down theory of public debate.  This scenario has been decades in the making, beginning with Roger Ailes vision of Fox News as a vehicle for hijacking the news and substituting an ideologically slanted version of it.  Hiring many committed conservatives and encouraging them to present their sometimes bizarre views as truth to an equally committed audience of mostly older white folks who looked on changing social mores with horror.  These people get virtually all their information from Fox and other fringe outlets and live in a bubble where anything Democrats propose is work of the devil.  The rest of the reality based media are equally horrified by this dichotomy, but until the bubble the mostly white, mostly older consumers of Faux News live in is punctured, we will continue to live in a world where truth is a malleable commodity and interpretation is everything.

Spinning for fun

Well, the first debate is history, and the post mortems were not kind to the Donald.  After 20 minutes of bluster which could have been plucked from his stump speech, Trump ran into the well prepared responses of Clinton and proceeded to toss a word salad of gibberish at both he and an incredulous Lester Holt.  Pretty much everyone figured he would "wing it" in the debate, much as he did in the republican primary debates.  However, he didn't care or didn't realize what might happen in a one on one encounter with a well prepared opponent.  He managed to put Hillary on the defensive on trade issues, because a simple message that we are being taken advantage of by everyone in the world and somehow he will solve all our problems with a protectionist policy works far better than the nuanced world of international trade.  However, on national defense, his prescription that we provide protection to our allies based on extorting fees from them seemed over the top and incoherent.  By the time nuclear weapons were mentioned, only a diehard supporter could have been comfortable with his tiny fingers on the trigger.  By comparison, Hillary looked and more importantly sounded competent and ready to govern from day one.  My guess is The Donald will blow off the next debates when he sees the morning after reviews of his performance.  No more popcorn before election day.

Popcorn time

By the time the debates actually start tonight, virtually every scenario involving advantage to one campaign or the other will have been thoroughly covered from multiple viewpoints.  The actual words coming out of the candidates' mouths will be irrelevant to the pundits, most of whom will have decided ahead of time who won.  Unless Lester Holt has been on Mars for the last couple of weeks he will know he will be pilloried by Dems if he doesn't fact checks the blizzard of lies unleashed by Trump and called a partisan (despite his republican registration) if he does.  Either way, he is going to take a lot of flak.  My own suggestion would be an independent fact checker either candidate can appeal to in real time to verify statements made by his/her opponent. 

The King is Dead

After playing a round of golf with friends yesterday, I got home and found out Arnold Palmer had died.  There are very few Americans of any age, but certainly almost no baby boomers who have not heard of "The King", even if they never hit a golf ball or followed the game.  Growing up, I was in the latter category.  I viewed golf as a waste of 4-5 hours of a weekend.  Nonetheless, I knew of "Arnie's Army" as his legions of followers were called.  My grandfather, who never picked up a club as far as I know watched TV golf in retirement and cited Palmer.  He popularized what had been an elitist sport (and still is in the main) and encouraged many middle class men and women to begin to play the sport as a lifestyle.  I hope to be able to get my grandchildren to share my obsession.  It all began with a working man from Latrobe, Pa. with the common touch who affected millions with his humble attitude and charismatic play.  Long live the King!

Losing it

Most liberals who are tuned into this election are losing their you know what as the first presidential debate nears.  The commentariat on the left is either trying to lower expectations for Clinton or pre-emptively working the refs to insure Hillary gets some credit for focusing on issues instead of "scandals", which we know is all Trump has to offer.  If Roger Ailes has anything to do with The Donald's debate prep, it will be a fact free performance.  Paul Krugman in the NYT is begging reporters to do their job and report each lie from both sides.  He quotes a study from Politifact which examined over 250 statements from each candidate.  Trump lied at least 4 times as often as Clinton and yet due almost entirely to media coverage she is perceived as dishonest.  What kind of rabbit hole have we fallen into?  I'm afraid the darkest predictions are liable to be borne out on Monday.  Unless Trump jumps over the podium and starts to strangle Hillary he will be judged "Presidential" by a mostly credulous press.  Unless Hillary reworks the sermon on the mount, there will be "lingering questions" regarding her honesty.  America....I love this place!

Tone Deaf Trump

Almost immediately after two black men were killed by police in Oklahoma and North Carolina, The Donald continued his ludicrous "outreach" to African-Americans by advocating the nationwide institution of "stop and frisk" policing.  Perhaps his buddy Rudy Giuliani has been whispering in his ear, extolling the benefits of an unconstitutional and almost certainly racial profiling practice.  How Trump can get in front of a gathering of black pastors and tell them his idea of keeping communities safe is to double down on military style policing is beyond belief.  A Trump presidency would turn the nation's inner cities and poor neighborhoods  into pressure cookers of racism and resentment.  The fact we even have to contemplate that possibility is a sad commentary on the "deplorables" on the "Alt-right" who provide much of the impetus to the modern GOP.  Despite many republicans who have condemned Trump, many more have come home to their nominee.  I wonder what it would take for a majority of the party to repudiate the thrice married, racist demagogue whose only religion is money and self glorification. 

Panic attacks and Clinton

The latest round of polls shows an uptick in Hillary's numbers.  That is still not enough to quiet the growing panic among casual democrats.  Now they are worried that somehow the insult comedian will pull off an upset in Monday's "debate" because about all he has to do to win is remain upright and spew his usual word salad.  He is absolutely graded on a curve, but I think in the case of an actual head to head encounter, Clinton's cool demeanor will eventually rattle him to the point he will make a gaffe even he can't be excused.  I think if he fails to rattle her, desperation will goad him to a lie even his most avid supporters will have to call out.  I think the issue of his taxes, the Trump Foundation and his overseas business dealings are more than enough ammunition for Clinton to destroy The Donald.  So calm down and get the popcorn ready.

Voting

Everyone in the media is wringing their hands about voter turnout.  It seems we have to somehow convince young people to vote.  What is the problem here.  If you are registered to vote, it takes about 15 minutes of your day to cast a ballot.  If you are not registered it may take a few minutes longer to take care of that aspect of your civic duty.  Of course, I'm a late middle aged white man whose presence at a polling place is a given on election day.  No one will dispute or even turn a hairy eyeball in my direction when I show up to vote.  I have voted in every election since I turned 18 and fully expect to continue this tradition.  So what is the big deal with this younger generation.  There doesn't seem to be any studies explaining why so few of the children of the baby boomers show up to vote.  As I said, time spent on actually voting is negligible.  The excuse that "my vote doesn't count" is feeble and self centered.  The disincentives many jurisdictions use to discourage voting is something to consider.  However, I think the main reason less than 60% of eligible voters cast a ballot is apathy.  This may be the hardest behavior to overcome, as anyone who has raised teenagers can attest.  It is still no excuse.  The stakes are extremely high and the policies that will be enacted if the insult comedian wins are so horrific as to be mind boggling.  Voting, even in the face of myriad distractions is not only the right and duty of everyone, but a commitment to a future we can all embrace.

Got to make the sauce

Like that tired baker in the old Dunkin Donuts commercial who had to make the donuts, with the abundance of tomatoes in the garden, I had to make the sauce.  This year I grew a few San Marzano tomato plants and the results are nothing short of amazing!  The plants are literally carpeted with tomatoes and they are practically dehydrating on the vine.   Squeezing these fruits is like making tomato paste.  It is that thick.  Yesterday's batch may be the best I have ever made.  Despite or possibly because of the lack of rain, the tomatoes are concentrating their flavor.  It is a vintage year.  Unfortunately the same cannot be said of much of the rest of the garden.  The lettuce continues to grow sans moisture, but the late broccoli and cauliflower could use a drink.  I watered the spinach plantings from late August and early September in hopes they will produce before the frost.  The late corn produced ears, but they are markedly smaller than earlier plantings.  The eggplant and peppers are still blossoming, but it will be too late to produce more fruit.  As with every garden, there are winners and losers.  On balance, this year will be remembered for the sauce.

Birther in Chief

During an interview with a reporter from the Washington Post, the insult comedian running for the Presidency of the US refused to categorically state that the current president was born in Hawaii.  Trump made his political reputation, such as it is, as the spokesman for the "Birther" movement.  This fringe of the American electorate, which includes many of his supporters today, wants to believe that somehow Obama is illegitimate because he was born in a foreign country.  Trump fanned the flames from 2011 until recently.  He demanded the President produce his birth certificate and aided by the right wing media, the uproar grew so loud, the certificate was duly produced.  This quieted most people, but Trump continued to allege the documentation was somehow bogus.  A fairly large slice of his supporters base their allegiance to him on this issue.  For him to admit Obama's legitimacy could be interpreted by these fools as a betrayal.  Therefore Trump must feel he will pay a price for his acceptance of reality.  I can't wait for the first presidential debate, when he is asked in front of tens of millions of people to affirm the President's birthplace.  That is one reason why I think we will not see a debate in this election.

Liberal angst

As one election prognosticator put it, "liberals can be such ninnies".   He projects a 90% probability that Hillary will win the election, despite the fallout of "phlegm-gazi" and Trump's latest surge in the polls.   As Sam Wang says, the number of persuadable voters left in the country is tiny.  The real work is the get out the vote teams.  Here is where the Clinton campaign has the big advantage.  They have out organized Trump from the beginning and as long as they mobilize democrats to vote, Clinton will win.  There are more registered Democrats than Republicans, so the math is simple.  If we vote, we win.  Meanwhile, The Divine Mrs. M will have 55 more days to worry about how things can still go wrong.

What is to be done?

The liberal part of the social media has been working the mainstream version of itself tirelessly for the past few weeks as it protests the steady drumbeat of negative coverage of Hillary Clinton's campaign while barely protesting the torrent of lies and BS emanating from Trump's.  In sport's jargon, it's called "working the refs".  So far, the foremost names in the media such as the NYT have declined to be influenced.  It was up to President Obama to call out some of the more outrageous lies at a rally in Philadelphia yesterday.  With a 58% approval rating, Obama is more popular than the media, so his criticisms not only had to be covered, but possibly may shame the press and TV journalists to be more even-handed for the rest of the campaign.  We can only hope.

The latest Hillary tempest

As Lawrence O'Donell pointed out last night, what Hillary voter would switch their vote to Donald Trump even if it was revealed she had a life threatening disease and wouldn't be able to finish a 4 year term?  Conversely, what committed Trump voter would switch to Hillary if their roles were reversed?  None and none are the correct answers.  Both candidates have engaged in punishing work schedules for more than a year now.  If anything, the actual work required by the Presidency will be a vacation by comparison.  It can be argued Clinton has put in more actual work than Trump.  Standing in front of cheering crowds and spewing a mind numbing catalog of egregious falsehood is his stock in trade.  Crafting serious policy agendas and explaining them in literally hundreds of events and interviews is physically and intellectually draining.  Fact free assertions vs. careful policy pronouncements.....hmmm.   Meanwhile, the press will obsess about "transparency" regarding Clinton's health while giving the latest Trump smears and insults pass without comment.  It is fortunate that Trump seems not to be able to expand his "basket of deplorables" beyond 40-42% of the voting public.  Hopefully that is the upper limit of racist, misogynist, xenophobes available to be seduced by The Donald's schtick.

Late summer gardening

Gardening after Labor Day is both satisfying and a little frustrating.  I experienced both feelings during a busy weekend.  The normally harvested items continue to produce.  The warm, dry weather has produced a bumper crop of tasty tomatoes.  The dryness has prevented cracking and concentrated the tomato flavor.  I made a vintage batch of sauce on Sunday for an impromptu family dinner.  Most of the other crops are still doing well, despite the dryness. The heavier soils in my gardens retain moisture fairly well.  The late broccoli and cauliflower are slowing due to lack of rain and the late corn needs one more decent shower.  The lettuce has been outstanding and the peppers may make a late set of small fruit before frost.  The winter squashes are maturing nicely and the late spinach has gotten just enough rain to continue to grow.  I have reluctantly put away the planter and will concentrate on cleaning up the weedier beds in preparation for fall planting of garlic.  Here's hoping for a mild October and long harvest.

The Accumulating lies

I think the media, led by the Washington Post and the NYT , is about to start calling out the outrageous lie that is the heart of the Trump campaign.  The constant BS from The Donald is finally wearing down the "Both sides do it", meme that has so far characterized the race.   The WaPo finally admitted the e-mail "scandal" it had been peddling for months is dead.  After Colin Powell's e-mails to Hillary, ironically proved that both sides do do it sometimes, the press decided it didn't want to go down that path.  Meanwhile, the Miami Herald and the Tampa Bay Times are calling for a federal prosecutor to investigate Trump's contribution to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi's campaign shortly after it was announced her office would be investigating Trump University.   Within days of the contribution, Bondi's office quashed any idea of an investigation.  Talk about smoking guns!  Had anything like this been tied to Clinton, her campaign would be over.  However, I think the accumulation has finally taken its toll.

So it begins

I sure hope Lester Holt is better prepared to host the first Presidential debate on Sept. 26 than the hapless Matt Lauer was last night to host the "Commander in Chief" forum.   After spending a third of Hillary's  time focusing on e-mails, he basically allowed Trump to run him over.  Instead of elementary fact checking, he cheerfully moved on to another question answered with more word salad by master chef Trump.  To me, it seemed like Clinton came off as prepared for prime time and Trump like he just came out of a local bar and used the early evening drunks as his debate prep.  How anyone could think he came off well is a testament to how far the GOP has fallen.  Although, when you think about recent Republican presidents from Nixon through the Shrub, the standards are already pretty low. 

Revising the rules

Now that the mainstream media is again being called out for adhering to the "Clinton Rules" regarding their campaign coverage, the weasel words are being used again to defend papers like the NYT.  The paper of record has engaged in Clinton bashing for almost 30 years, and there latest reporting on the Clinton Foundation builds on that reputation.   The fact the foundation takes money from foreign governments and applies it to charitable and activist causes around the world gets coverage, but not for the altruistic aspects of its mission.  The "appearance" of conflict or the "optics" of Hillary as Secretary of State meeting donors to the Foundation is all the story they had.  So, instead of spiking it, or at least admitting there was no smoke or fire, the paper ran a story of innuendo instead of fact.  Meanwhile, the timing of a Trump Foundation donation to the PAC supporting the attorney general of Florida just days before the announcement the state would not be joining New York in a lawsuit against the now defunct Trump University got little or no coverage by the media.  The blowback of these stories is starting a little soul-searching on the part of some reporters.  There are some reluctant admissions the Clinton's automatically get closer scrutiny because they are the closest thing in America to a royal family.  

Getting dry

For the most part this gardening season we have gotten enough moisture at Casa Monzeglio that crops have not suffered.  That is no longer the case.  My late cauliflower and broccoli need rain or they will not form and grow normal heads.  The late lettuce plantings are hanging in, but also need a decent rain.  As the weather forecasters blather on about how beautiful the weather is and will be, I feel an unhealthy rage building at their ignorance about agriculture and the beneficial aspects of precipitation.  The dry weather is helpful for the tomatoes as it concentrates their flavor, but even they need some wet weather to develop later fruit.  The one unalloyed pleasure of the dry weather is the need to use the lawnmowers less often.

Stretch Run

It occurs to me the gardening and election season tend to overlap at this time.  As Labor Day recedes into the rearview mirror, the garden and the campaigns kick into high gear.  For me, it's all about the harvest.  Just about everything is in season in September and the challenge is to pick, sell, preserve and generally get everything possible out of the garden before the inevitable frost.  For Hillary and the Donald it's all about consolidating their bases and appealing to the few, rare, undecided voters.  After that, they have the same problem I do, after cultivating voters for over a year, they have to harvest them.  GOTV is Hillary's forte and Trump's Achille's heel.  Without a dedicated nationwide force of people making sure your voters actually cast a ballot, all those rallies with thousands of screaming fans are fruitless. 

It's Tomato Time

After teasing me with lush growth for the past couple of months, the tomato crop has really started to produce at an alarming rate.  I picked over 100 lbs. of blush, pink and ripe yesterday and there are plenty more on the way.  Some of the vines have a little early blight, but the majority of the crop is made and just needs to ripen.  Of course I wish we could have started harvesting a month ago, but the weather was cool and dry right after planting and it took several weeks for the crop to really get going.  I probably over fertilized, which caused the aforementioned growth.  However, unlike my eggplants, the tomatoes actually set and grew a good crop.  Unfortunately, everyone in the farmers' market has tons of the tasty fruit, so most of mine will probably wind up as sauce.  I don't think my daughters and their families will be upset by the news!   Meanwhile, in political news, The Donald's trip to Mexico was succinctly captured in a tweet from Rob Reiner. I quote, " We're not sending our best to Mexico.  We're sending liars, we're sending narcissists, we're sending sociopaths".  LOL...