Career changes

I read with some amusement a column in today's NYT describing five 20 something men who threw over their office jobs to landscape, hang drapes, build stone walls and bake.  They all sounded like converts to a macho cult of exhaustion.  As someone who made the transition from physical to mental labor 30 years ago, I would tell these poseurs to report back after 10 years of 100 hour weeks spent outdoors or in the sauna of a bakery and let me know how that's working out for them.   These guys are the poster children for those who would raise the retirement age.  Maybe if they start at 30, they will be able to withstand the rigors of decades of physical labor better than previous generations.  All I will tell them is working on farms and nurseries for 20 years part and full time took a toll on my knees and joints which remind me of human frailty every time I stand up after sitting for several hours.  My hobby garden is further proof that working with your hands may be satisfying, but it's hard bought with aches and pains.  I don't think I'll be giving up my day job to indulge in macho fantasies anytime soon.

Gardening Future

What will gardening on the NCR look like in 50 years?  I won't be around to report on that particular issue, but I can predict the conditions based on my experiences of the last 50.  As a freshman at Clarkson U. in Potsdam, NY in the early 1970s, it was a given the area would endure temperatures in the -50 F. range every winter.  The joke was you could throw a glass of water out a second story window and it would freeze before it hit the ground!  In any case, the gardening season usually ended by midSeptember with several freezes recorded before October.  Fast forward to the present... It is Oct. 31 and the gardening season continues apace.  If  not for recent rainy weather, I would still be fertilizing late spinach and kale.  Where they are protected by overhanging foliage, tender weeds like galinsoga continue to grow.  What's more, there is little in the way of freezing weather predicted for the next 10 days.  At this rate, I may be killing weeds on Christmas day in 2025.   If President Trump has his way, my grandchildren may be planting palm trees on the family property by 2050, if we still have a country by then.   Let's hope wiser heads prevail and we are able to halt and even begin the process of reversing climate change.  Longer gardening seasons on the NCR would be too dearly bought for my comfort.

Undeniably Deplorable

By the day after the 2016 elections, somewhere around 50 million people will have cast a vote for someone who is inarguably the least qualified person who has ever run for President.  Donald J. Trump has been shown to be ignorant of policy, morally bankrupt and tempermentally unsuited for the diplomatic requirements of the presidency.  He has shown disrespect to women and disdain for the hard work required of anyone seeking the office.  Yet many women and even a few educated men fully intend to vote for this caricature of a candidate.  Misogyny is surely one of the reasons for this otherwise inexplicable abandonment of reason.  Many men and women are uncomfortable with the idea of a woman president.  The demonization of Hillary Clinton has been relentless, but it would be so for any other female candidate.  Hillary may have more baggage than most, but does anyone really think it would be different for any strong woman?  Beyond fear and hatred for the change a woman president represents, party affiliation counts also.  The republicans who are voting for Trump out of loyalty to the party are another slice of support.  They will have to live with this choice for the rest of their lives.  Finally, the members of the alt right, racists, white supremacists and other haters make up the "deplorables" who have finally gotten the candidate they have clamored for and deserve.  Fortunately for the future of democracy, all of these groups make up a minority of the electorate.  As long as the rest of us show up and vote, the last year and a half will be nothing more than an unhappy memory.

Posting on the nativity

Wyatt Daniel Rock, all 19 inches and 7 1/2 pounds of him made his first appearance in the world last night at 8:03 p.m.   Mother and son are doing fine.  For statistic freaks, Wyatt is among the 20% of babies who was actually born on his due date.  Despite the grinding of the Divine Mrs. M's molars, he looks like a fine little man!  He and his peers from 2008 through at least the next four years will have been born during the presidencies of the first black man and the first woman elected to that office.  While the effect of these landmarks will be lost on this first generation of post millennial babies, their older siblings will have experienced the politics and policies associated with Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton.  Much as boomers were influenced by Jack Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, this generation will embody the aspirations and contradictions of this new political paradigm.  I'm sure Wyatt's parents will ponder these issues, but as of last night, his mother was only hoping he would be a better sleeper than his big sister, Hannah Grace.

New Beginnings

Normally, I hate being wakened in the middle of the night with a text message.  This morning was the exception to that particular rule.  My middle daughter Merry was off to the hospital to prepare for the birth of her second child.  As I shared the news with the Divine Mrs. M and  slid back into a restless sleep, it occurred to me we have well and truly moved into the role of caretakers of the family's collective wisdom.   The younger generation will deal with sleepless nights and the rigors of raising children.  Nana and I will be the backstop and example for them.  We did it, and so can they.  We came from a generation which pioneered the concept of both parents working and juggling careers with parental duties.  Our parents were exemplars of the patriarchal society which reached its apex in the 1950s.  The father was the breadwinner and the mother the nurturer.  We gradually weaned ourselves away from that model, although Mrs. M still did more than half of the duty involved.  The next gen will be a more equal partnership and I wish them well.  Meanwhile, we await the arrival of the new addition and hope the parents can agree on a name at some point.....

End Games

The media is furiously plumping the horse race at this point, mostly in the face of nearly overwhelming evidence that Trump is cratering.  Early voting has begun in many states and the Clinton campaign's GOTV operation is working in all 50 states.  Trump's version is to hold as many rallies as possible and call the attendees to vote.  That didn't work so well for Bernie and it won't replace the thousands of phone banks and door to door canvassers who are working for Clinton and down ballot Dems.  Without the RNC's operation, Trump would have virtually no one trying to turn out voters.  As Clinton and the DNC turn toward Senate candidates who can flip the Senate liberal media are worrying about over confidence on Hillary's side.   It doesn't seem that way to me.  It more resembles planting seeds just before a welcome rain in the summer.  If you do all the little things right, the crop will come.  Trump, on the other hand more like a farmer spraying roundup a couple of days late and wondering  why the sprouting crop is turning yellow.  In politics, as in gardening, timing counts heavily in the results of your labor. 

Seasonal bounty

As always, the month of October presents unusual opportunities and dilemmas when it comes to fresh from the garden vegetables.  The late plantings of broccoli, cabbage, kale and other greens are there for the picking, but you can only eat so much fiber every day.  But the countdown to really freezing weather is under way, and even the hardiest veg can only take so much temperature abuse.  I'll wind up harvesting way more than we can eat and storing it for as long as possible.  Meanwhile, I tried an Italian variety of cauliflower which is making lush growth but is refusing  to make heads.  A couple of mornings in the mid to upper 20s are predicted this week, which should put an end to that particular experiment.  I have found a few winners in the "Seeds from Italy" catalog, but also a fair number of disappointments.  Open pollinated varieties may sound good on paper, but the hybrids offered by most US seed companies usually outperform them and are more reliable for the average gardener.  I should have planted "Snow Crown" if I wanted a good late cauliflower.  We received nearly three inches of rain over the weekend which while not really helping late crops will play havoc with plans to get the seed garlic planted before the ground freezes.  Ah, gardening on the NCR... gotta love it.

Possibilities

I was about to write an obituary for the GOP presidential pretender, but decided not to invite karmic retribution.  Instead, I would like to focus on the possibility of a Democratic "wave" election similar to 2008, where the Dems won control of both houses of Congress.  By virtue of slim majorities and despite relentless republican obstruction, the triumvirate of Obama, Pelosi and Reid managed to pass the most progressive legislation since the 1960s.  Their achievements included the ACA or Obamacare, saving the auto industry, the Fair Pay Act and many other progressive goals.  Unfortunately they also had to deal with an economic meltdown and the Shrub's failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  If Clinton is given majorities to work with in the House and Senate even if only for two years, progressives will be salivating at the prospect of the legislation that could advance our goals.  It is still a long shot, but Trump's historic unpopularity allows for the possibility that despite republican gerrymandering, the will of the people might actually be respected.

It's all over, except when it's not

With a virtual promise to not accept the results of the 2016 Presidential election, Donald Trump took his campaign to a new low.   When specifically asked by debate moderator Chris Wallace if he will concede the election if Hillary Clinton is declared the winner, he said he would "keep you in suspense", then whining that he had seen some "unbelievable things".  This exchange brought an audible gasp from the debate spectators which was echoed throughout the nation as people from both parties condemned this flouting of the norms of politics in the US.   Of course there are probably millions of Trump supporters who heard a different message.  These are the "deplorables" who would be revolutionaries if it doesn't interfere with the NFL schedule!  Beyond this campaign ending gaffe on Trump's part, the debate was fairly predictable.  After a fairly strong start appealing to his base on the questions of abortion and guns, Trump, facing a strong, well prepared opponent began to interrupt, insult and betray his tenuous grasp on the issues.  Even when Hillary was somewhat vulnerable to the recent spate of wikileaks releases of e-mails from her campaign chairman's server, she was able to frame the retort to tie Trump to Vladimir Putin.  This seemed to throw Trump off balance.  The post debate poll showed the audience felt Clinton won by a comfortable margin and the pundits were fixated on Trump's refusal to concede if defeated.  Hillary looked presidential while Donald looked angry and confused.  Game over.

Obscuring the issues

While there is a certain satisfaction in seeing the Donald be hoisted by his sexism petard with the recent revelations regarding his sexual assault m.o., the resultant glut of coverage has largely blotted out the issues which will affect Americans long after this election is a bad memory.  Social Security reform is one of the mega issues bearing down on the baby boomer generation, but it has generated surprisingly little coverage.  This is especially egregious because of the age of the candidates.  Both Trump and Clinton are or will be eligible to collect the maximum benefit available.  This munificent sum is probably in the neighborhood of $3800.00/month.  While it wouldn't keep either candidate in the style to which they have become accustomed, it represents the biggest single payment many people in my generation are likely to see each month.  Without the system is tweaked in the next few years, that benefit, as well as the lower payments most Americans are likely to see will be reduced by up to 35%.  Hillary has a plan to raise the limit on which taxes are collected.  Trump promises continued new benefits but no new taxes.  We need to hear both candidates expound on this issue as well as many others this evening.  Unfortunately, we will be treated to an hour and a half of e-mails and sexual harassment allegations.  It may be titillating, but it certainly won't be enlightening.

Wet and wild

The weather seems to be mirroring our election season in its unpredictability.   After a light frost on Saturday morning, temperatures have climbed into the 60s and 70s for highs.  Today should approach 80.  We have had barely a trace of rain for the last month, but over an inch of rain is predicted for the end of the week.   Following the deluge we are promised more seasonal temperatures and precipitation.   That is code for snow and cold in this area.   The garden still has quite a bit of produce to harvest over the next few weeks if temperatures remain within reason.   There is still plenty of kale, collards, broccoli and cabbage.  The spinach is peaking and the beets and carrots are still growing.  It is a shame that so many items are at their peak of flavor and nutritive value and yet a week of bad weather in late October can ruin them.  Of course, 25 years ago, late September was the end of the gardening season here on the NPR.  So I guess there are some good things about climate change. 

The coming tide of BS

The real, naked Donald Trump was on full display yesterday.  Shorn of any remaining hope of winning the presidency, he is determined to try and take the whole system down with him.  Cartels of international bankers with "unlimited" resources are meeting with Hillary Clinton to plot the destruction of our sovereignty.  This stuff is right out of Hitler's playbook as he prepared the German people for the Third Reich.   He doesn't mention the Protocols of the Elders of Zion by name, but any Jew with a smattering of history at her command knows exactly which buttons Trump is pushing.  As some commentators have said, he is literally in the bunker with a covey of white supremacist lunatics and he has wholeheartedly embraced their playbook.  One of the many differences between the US in 2016 and Germany in 1932 is the economic situation.  We are not in a depressed economy with raging inflation.  All he really has to peddle is hate of everyone who is not a  white man.  Fortunately, that won't work in our pluralistic society where working class non college white men make up a small percentage of the overall electorate.  The scary scenario is that somewhere, someone is taking notes right now and preparing for the elections in 2020.  That person will not be an aging, sexist buffoon.  I will weep for our country if Hillary is unable to reconcile the grievances, real and fancied that so many people seem to feel.

A Storm of Shoes

With apologies to George R.R. Martin, the blog post refers to the now incessant drumbeat of women coming forward with stories of The Donald forcing himself on them.  Kissing, touching and otherwise demeaning them as objectified objects of his perverted desire.  All that's missing is an actual rape.  That this misogynist has gotten so far in this election cycle is either a tribute to his campaign's ability to keep a lid on his past, or his opponents' inept oppo researchers.  A more sinister take is that up until the recent revelations, no one has thought Trump's bragging about his sexual escapades was anything more than "locker room banter".  As one of the women who contacted the NYT said, she felt like punching the television as he denied he acted on the supposed fantasies confided to Billy Bush.    This may or may not be the death knell of Trump's campaign.  He still has not tested the limits of his supporters' patience by actually shooting someone on Fifth Ave.  However, he has certainly destroyed any lingering doubt among self respecting women that he is a chauvinist pig who feels that 51% of Americans are fair game for his infantile fantasies.

It's the climate, stupid

Hillary trotted out Al Gore yesterday in Florida  to bolster her standing among millenials worried about the effects of climate change on their lives and those of their children.  Neither party has spent much time or effort to educate or discuss plans for combatting the effects of mankind's promiscuous release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.  Now that Clinton's election is virtually assured, maybe it is time to listen to the Al Gores of the world.  The science is indisputable to anyone who accepts the scientific method.  At a certain tipping point, the amount of heat trapping gasses in the air will bring about catastrophic changes which may be inimitable to life on earth as we know it.  Every time I see my 2 year old grandchildren and think of how their lives will be impacted by climate change I shudder.  Too many other people have chosen to either ignore or actively deny this change is happening.  Droughts, floods, warmest months of all time followed by even warmer months;  this is all in line with predictions by climate scientists.  I hope Hillary and her closest advisors realize the gravity of the situation.  It's a sure bet Trump and his crew, who are now engaged in a scorched earth political suicide have not spared a moment's thought for the future of our plante.

Women for Trump?

How any woman can support a man who objectifies virtually every portion of the female anatomy, who is fine with a radio shock jock referring to his daughter as a "piece of ass" and who speaks like a sexual predator is way beyond me.  However, the spectacle of a few women at a Trump rally behind a banner saying Virginia Women for Trump, juxtaposed with a male carrying a sign proclaiming "It's better to grab a p***y than to be one" put's the dilemma into an easy to understand slogan.  If you are a woman who supports the republican candidate for president,  expect to be denigrated and marginalized by the misogynistic, racist a-holes who support this worthless excuse for a human being.

Another debate post-mortem

Despite the "brave" insistence of many if not most cable commenters, the public seems to have felt Hillary won last night's debate by a pretty wide margin.  Despite the carefully vetted presence of so-called undecided voters, both the moderators and Trump decided to virtually ignore their questions and focus on the prurient interest of the Donald's sex innuendo tape.  He, in turn took a swipe at Bill Clinton's indiscretions, going so far as holding a press conference attended by most of the women who have called out Clinton for sexually abusing them.  This was the prelude to Trump's scorched earth policy of trying to drag Hillary down to his level.  Unfortunately for him there were some actual questions from the audience he had to answer.  After a few "believe me's", he usually launched into a spate of gibberish instead of any concrete policy statements.  On health care, he is going to replace Obamacare with "unbelievably good" policies, blah, blah, blah.  On the middle east, I doubt he could have identified Syria on an unlabeled map, let alone Aleppo.  Clinton adopted the Pence strategy, namely not engaging on complicated issues like her e-mails and ignoring Trump's attempt to tie Bill's sexual indiscretions to her.  It was ugly, but most of the time she appeared to know she was supposed to respond to the audience questions, unlike the insult comedian.  The CNN poll showed most of the public appreciated that.

It's all fun and games until the planet gets hurt

Making fun of the sort of people who absolutely know Obama is a Kenyan muslim socialist, Vince Foster was murdered, global warming is a hoax, etc. is an amusing pastime.  Then, you wake up one morning and realize some 30-40% of Americans believe these tropes and are willing to bet the nation's future on them.  Donald Trump is the pentultimate creation of the conspiracy peddling fifth estate of alternative social websites and right wing media outlets like Faux News.  These "truthy" sources have blurred the line between fact and fantasy to the extent many people have turned against mainstream papers and other sources which traffic in inconvenient facts which contradict the conspiracy theories which seem to comfort so many of our neighbors.  I guess it is easier to believe in UN black helicopters and "false flag" operations that explain why things are not the same as they were in some golden yesterday when white Americans held all the world in their hands and everyone else knew their place.  Yes, Trump will almost certainly lose this election, but the damage he has done to our polity is incalculable.  His politics will almost surely lead to a person who will plausibly explain how we will  make America great again.  May the Flying Spaghetti Monster have mercy on us all.

"Smart" people and the peril of democracy

One of the things that always impressed me about my mentor, Jerry Shulman, was his dedication to democracy.   He took his civic duty seriously, including paying taxes.  While he didn't enjoy the annual ritual, he always said it was a good year if he  had to pay his share to keep government and all the services it provides running smoothly.  He had many good years.  I would contrast that with the antics of the insult comedian running for president.  Evidently , The Donald has not paid federal taxes since sometime in the 1980s.  As chronicled by various reporters, his business past is littered with failures, most of them bailed out by his father.  If he had not been tapped to host "The Apprentice" series of reality tee vee shows, which showcased all the horrible aspects of his personality, he would probably be a greenskeeper at one of his golf courses.  As he no doubt knows, releasing his tax returns would be the final nail in his political coffin.  It would also show that despite his protestations of patriotism, he is unwilling or unable to support the nation he aspires to lead.  Jerry Shulman would be shaking his head in disbelief that such a charlatan could be one election away from disgracing America.

Not the Beer thing again

So, it sounds like more Americans would like to have a beer with Mike Pence than Tim Kaine.  As noted bully and interrupter Chris Matthews opined,  Kaine seemed more aggressive and combative than Pence.  Well, the clash of ideas in a public forum can be a messy business and Kaine's agenda was to tie Pence and the republican party to Trump.  Pence refused to defend his putative boss and made many in his party yearn for a Pence candidacy in 2020.  If the debate was judged on points scored by an impartial panel, I have little doubt Kaine was the winner.  However, these encounters are more often judged on style than substance and many pundits judged  Pence was cooler.   He also  lied far more and better than his opponent.  He simply refused to answer or lied about any Trumpism called out by Kaine.  The refusal of the moderator to force him to stay within the parameters of the debate allowed him to throw The Donald under the bus without having to actually defend anything.  As one pundit put it, Kaine is running for vice president in 2016.  Pence is running for president in 2020.  Pence is a nasty piece of work who is not noted for his grasp of foreign or domestic policy, a sort of George W. Bush lite.  But on the limited stage of a VP debate with a mandate to stop the bleeding of his ticket, he accomplished the job, albeit by dropping Trump like the proverbial hot potato.

October surprises

October is definitely my favorite month.   Cool weather, beautiful scenery, bountiful harvests of fall vegetables and perfect golfing weather.  This year, there is the stress of a presidential election, but the latest news on that front is comforting.   The release of a few pages of Trump's taxes are not going to convince the racist misogynist base of his bad faith.  On the contrary, it will only reinforce their belief in his "genius".   I won't even speculate how these people can square this circle, but certainly anyone who was genuinely on the fence should now be falling onto the Clinton column.  I look forward to more revelations regarding The Donald's prowess at gaming the system to his advantage and his feeble explanations as to how this qualifies him to be president.  The laughs keep coming...