Food Deflation

According to Kevin Drum at Mother Jones, the cost of food bought in supermarkets has actually decreased by 2.2% from the beginning of 2016 until now.  This should be good news for most people and certainly the Divine Mrs. M and I have enjoyed the discounts, although since vegetable sales and distribution is my job, the collapse of veg prices over the last few months is a little unnerving.   Many jobbers and distributors I speak with on a daily basis have commented on the lack of movement hurting prices.  There is no general agreement on what is happening.    Since many, if not most of the produce trade consists of older Italian or Jewish men (at least in the Northeast US), the preferred explanation for the lack of business is Democratic policy in general and Obama in particular.  However, the immediate aftermath of Trump's victory has not produced a bonanza of business, so I think we can put that theory to rest.  Another, more pernicious theory is that a combination of junk food availability and increased restaurant patronage may be taking a permanent bite out of vegetable consumption.  From personal experience, the average restaurant meal is heavy on meat and short on vegetables and pricing has been heading steadily upward.  I know that the stressed out younger generation eats out far more often than their boomer elders, who in turn spurred the growth of the plethora of fast food establishments which now line our highways.  This year, Americans spent more on food served in restaurants than food bought to be cooked at home.  I would posit the latter fact has more to do with lack of veg sales than political policies.   We need to excite people about the possibilities of cooking in 2017.

Wishes for 2017

Aside from a few familial milestones, the birth of Wyatt Daniel Rock being foremost among them, 2016 was a lousy year.  From the death of cultural icons like David Bowie and Prince to the election of an unqualified buffoon to the presidency of the United States there were few bright spots in the wider world.  Britons rejected multiculturalism and voted to retreat from European engagement.  Russian meddling in world affairs became more aggressive and blatant.  The Chinese tiger began to roar.  America continued to recover from the 2008 economic meltdown, but income inequality and stagnant middle class wages encouraged many voters to blow up the status quo, symbolized by the election of Trump.  The list goes on, but at least we will turn the page at midnight tomorrow.  I have always looked at the start of a new year as a chance to maybe get things a little closer to perfection.  I hope most of the 7 billion people who share starship earth feel the same way.  Happy New Year to all and best wishes for a safe and joyful year.

The challenge of Trumpian norms

Our president elect emerged from what will probably be known as the Florida White House, Mar-a-Lago, and delivered several word salads to the press yesterday.   He claimed credit for jobs which were announced months ago, conflated the Russian hack of our elections to how difficult computers have made the modern world and finally weighed in on Israel's snit over John Kerry's speech regarding the Jewish settlements on the West Bank, saying that things would be different after Jan. 20.   When Cheeto Jesus said this kind of stuff during the campaign, people would wring their hands and assume this nighmare would be gone after the election or cheer it as some sort of "breath of fresh air" and a rejection of long term norms of political discourse.  Well, we haven't woken from the nightmare, and the fresh air is now revealed as the know nothing bloviation that it so transparently always was.   Expect more of the same when it comes to domestic policy.  One big reason Trump has not called any press conferences is his handlers' fears his deep ignorance of policy will be on display for the world to see.  When the grownups leave 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in January it will become apparent what depths we are about to plumb.   The challenge we will all face is how to deal with the reality of the village idiot becoming mayor.

The Princess is dead

Carrie Fisher, aka Princess Leia died after suffering a heart attack earlier in the week.  I find myself strangely affected by the news of her passing.  As with many millions of other Americans and fans around the world, I remember seeing Star Wars in 1977 and being impressed by the plucky Princess Leia and her "can do" attitude toward her duty as leader of the rebel alliance opposing the evil Empire.   As opposed to a typical Disney princess who waited passively for her Prince Charming to deliver her from whatever villain threatened, Leia was likely to pick up a blast rifle and start shooting before her befuddled would be rescuers had figured out the situation.  She became the prototype of this new kind of action heroine.  Ironically the Star Wars franchise is now owned by Disney.  Fisher herself also personified this rough and ready ethos, although her private life was a shambles and she struggled with drug and alcohol problems.  She will appear in one more movie as the Princess in the continuing saga.  We'll miss her and also the alter ego, who showed there is more than one way to express femininity in the 21st century.

Boxing Day blues

Christmas 2016 is now officially Past, to use the terminology made famous by one of the ghosts in Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol.   Now we can celebrate Boxing Day.  To the cognoscenti, this English holiday falling on the day after Christmas was originally dedicated to collecting donations of food for the poor which was "boxed" and then delivered to the less fortunate.  It has now become a hybrid of Christmas and Black Friday, at least at our Canadian neighbors'.   Unlike the US celebration of Black Friday as the kickoff to the Christmas season, the Canadian Boxing Day is the close of their season and usually offers better discounts.  Faced with year end inventories, many retailers turn them into cash by offering absurd bargains.   At least that is the theory.  Either way, it is the same as the greed and commercialism which plagues most developed countries.  As we slide toward a 2017 which will begin with the elevation of a reality TV star to the Presidency of the US, it is worth saying a silent prayer to whatever deity you favor to please keep us all sane in the face of the ludicrous situation into which a minority of voters have put the nation.  Boxing day is just another reminder of how a worthwhile institution has been changed out of recognition, much as the democratic process has been perverted. 

Trump and the twitterkrieg

No press conferences, no traveling pool of reporters and no information regarding his plans, except through twitter.  It sounds ludicrous, but in practice, this strategy of dealing with the media is working brilliantly.  With no other information available, the press is forced to report on and speculate what omens are contained in the 140 character nuggets spewed by the great orange satan.  The US should expand its nuclear war making capacity, the  Boeing company should price out a new version of the F-18 to compete with the F-35 (fighter jets), Trump hotels are great!  This is the sort of inanity presented every day.  The media either deals with it and reports on it or basically has nothing.  If I was the NYT editor, I would tell the president elect we will begin reportage of the new administration when a press conference is held.  Until then, we will report on the conflicts of interest, election hacking by the Russians and the FBI and other news which will tend to de-legitimize the coming administration.  The press is not used to the type of adversarial relationship envisioned by Trump and his spokespeople.  They better be on their game from day one of Trumpmania and treat like it is a knock off of the WWF and WrestleMania, because that is what it will be.

A cheery Christmas thought

"They who give up essential liberty for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety".  These prescient words by Benjamin Franklin pose the existential dilemma facing western democracy.   Do we give in to xenophobia and close our borders to refugees and immigrants.  Cheeto Jesus and his followers would board that train in a heartbeat.  The rest of the country should oppose this resurgence of know nothingism with every available means.   Right now the only defender of the dispossessed among western democracies is the chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel.  Ironically, she was born in communist East Germany.  However, she seems to have internalized the tenets of the western liberal canon in a far more visceral way than most of her contemporaries.  The recent Christmas market attack in Berlin will put extreme pressure on her to give in to the reactionaries.  I hope she resists and shows us how a true democractic leader reacts to the those who would close the borders and erect walls.

Let us not forget

The redacted search warrant the FBI used to rifle the laptop of Anthony Weiner before the recent presidential election has been released and according to at least one former federal prosecutor, it basically proves James Comey caused the election of Donald Trump.  In the warrant, the FBI does not show any cause to believe the emails in question had been previously withheld and/or were not duplicates they had previously reviewed.  Therefore there was no reason for Comey to buck the DOJ's longstanding ban of publicizing any investigations within 60 days of an election for fear of influencing the result.  His letter to congress, saying he believed the emails were relevant to and justified reopening the investigation of Hillary's server was just a ploy to release an avalanche of negative press coverage 10 days before the election.  Of course, republicans will say democrats need to get over it and get on with the rolling disaster of a Trump administration.  The simple fact is republicans have stolen 2 of the last 5 presidential elections due to the actions of the Supreme Court in Bush vs. Gore and the FBI in the recently concluded election.  As far as I am concerned everything Trump does for the next 4 years is illegitimate and tainted by Comey's actions. 

Solstice musings

The Winter Solstice will occur tomorrow, marking the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.  To a Christian nation obsessed with Christmas, most of us don't give thought to the celebrations our pre-Christian ancestors used to mark the waning of the old year.  From the Greeks celebrating the liberation of Persephone from Hades to the Druids and their sacrifices to the gods to propitiate the beginning of longer days leading to spring planting, humans have made this astronomical observance a touchstone.  Even Christianity appropriated the Roman holiday of Saturnalia and substituted the birthday of the savior with appropriate ceremony.  I guess the celebration of the virgin birth of god was insufficient to supplant the pagan rituals so many celebrated, so gift giving was added to the Christmas tradition.  Now it is so turbocharged that Romans would feel right at home in 21st century America.   It will be interesting to see if anything in our  multicultural society is able to eclipse our late December orgy of eating and gift giving.  I have a feeling that Christmas in one form or another is here to stay.  Pass the eggnog and add another string of lights to the Nativity scene...

Mourning in America

Today it becomes official.  The electoral college will confirm the victory of a psychopathic liar, serial groping misogynist and uncurious citizen to the highest office in the land.  Many people including the Divine Mrs. M are hoping for a collective gasp of recognition by the electors of the horror they are about to bestow on a supine nation.  Unfortunately, I don't share that hope.  After seeing over 60 million of my fellow Americans vote for a caricature of a human being for President, I have no  expectation of the electors reaching a  moral clarity their voters obviously did not.  As Paul Krugman despairingly opined in the NYT today, as with the Roman Republic when it slipped into the dictatorship of Roman Emperors when people put their own or their party's interests ahead of the nation's, the stage is set for despotism.  What many people told us when voting for a moron who claimed "Only I can fix it" is despair that the system can still work for them.  We're about to find out, and I don't think it will be pretty.

Time to fight back

I hate it when Democrats quietly to political oblivion without even a little fight.  If the shoes were on the other feet after Nov. 8, there would be so many Republican lawsuits clogging the federal courts, Hillary wouldn't get a mention on the news except as the illegitimate winner of the electoral college.  Electors would be getting death threats if they wouldn't agree to vote for Trump, the real winner with 2.8 million more votes than Hillary.  They would be frothing and screaming the election was stolen.  Where is Dem outrage?  Instead we hear senators and representatives opine as how they will work with Cheeto Jesus if he has the "peoples" interests in mind.   What about the flagrant interference in the elections by the Russians and the FBI.  For decades, republicans have excoriated dems for being soft on Russia.  Now they silently accept the gift Putin put under their Christmas tree.  Had Jim Comey published damning evidence of collusion between Trump and the Russians ten days before the elections, he would be sitting before oversight committees in the house and senate for the next ten years and would be wearing a prison jumpsuit shortly thereafter.  I am not advocating revolution, but someone needs to forcefully remind America that our elections were hacked and interfered with by foreign and domestic players and the result is not legitimate and in no way confirms any mandate on the supposed winner.  This election makes Bush vs. Gore look like a picnic in the park and this time around we need to make republicans own every slimy bit of it.

Now What?

The title is the name of a newly formed political action group out of Saranac Lake.  As the name implies, this is a group in search of identity and a concrete plan of action following the recent elections.   Much as many republicans reacted to President Obama's election in 2008, the progressive community was blindsided by The Donald's election and is flailing in the wilderness.  With more and more reports of foreign interference in our elections along with James Comey's unconscionable letter regarding Hillary's e-mails 10 days before the vote it seems we will be dealing with an historically unpopular president who nonetheless seems bent on governing as if he had a huge mandate.  60 people meeting on a small community college campus in the North Country of New York is a very modest beginning, but it shows people are willing to organize if the danger to our democracy is great enough.  Meanwhile, on the left coast, the governor of California is telling Trump's minions to bring it on.  "We've got plenty of lawyers in California" said Mr. Brown in response to the new administration's picks for EPA, Interior and DOE.  With an economy equal to virtually the combined economies of all the states that voted for Trump, California, New York and other progressive states can act as a counterbalance to federal overreach.  (I thought I would never write that!)  There will be dark days ahead, but the Obama coalition must hang together and turn out in 2018 to regain some of what was lost.

Falling Dominos

The revelations of Russian interference in America's elections keep coming and they get more serious with each passing day.  Actual collusion between Russian intelligence and the Trump campaign has not yet been proven, but I'm betting it's only a matter of time.  Would such collusion be treason?  It's an open question.  What we know so far is Russian agents hacked the Democratic National Committee, The Clinton campaign servers and various democratic operatives e-mails.  This information  was shared with republican campaigns around the country.  The republicans used this material, sometimes very successfully against their opposition.  Meanwhile, the media reported the ongoing operation as if it was business as usual.  It wasn't.  A hostile foreign government intervened directly in the most sacred ritual of a modern democracy to elect its favored candidate.   By all accounts it succeeded, albeit with a little help from the FBI and a media mesmerized by Hillary's e-mail server.  I'm betting the whole episode will be swept into a memory hole by the republican majority in Congress.  The alternative would probably be the impeachment of a newly elected president and the prompt return of the GOP to the political wilderness.  Such an act would require the political courage neither party has shown in recent years. 

All American

Senator Bernie Sanders and MSNBC host Chris Hayes ventured into "Trump Country" in Kenosha, Wisconsin last night and it was a sight to behold.  Bernie was bracketed by people who still have no idea what they bought on Election Day.  Despite the protestations that "he didn't really mean it" and "he started a dialogue" (whatever that means), the average Americans who gathered at the UAW meeting hall where the event was held displayed a breathtaking amount of racism, misogyny and xenophobia which would have gladdened the heart of any Klan members in the neighborhood.  At one point, after getting the other panelists to admit Trump lied to them, he asked the obvious question, "Then why did you vote for him".  It turns out, dissatisfaction with the status quo was probably the most likely reason for their vote.  In other words, since the kitchen floor is dirty, let's burn down the house and start over.   Immigrants, legal and otherwise were viewed as a threat to their jobs, way of life, etc.  Obama was a disappointment and the "do nothing" congress came in for criticism also.  With total republican control of the legislative and executive branches it will be interesting to see what these folks think when their social security and medicare are cut so taxes on the 1% can be cut.  Welcome to the world of 70 year retirement America. The ignorance, especially among the older members was breathtaking.   The facts don't seem to matter in post industrial America.  As Trump's surrogates have put it, facts are for losers.  I'm afraid roughly 99% of us fit into that category.

I owe, I owe

As of January 20, the new Debtor in Chief will occupy the most powerful office in the world.  He also owes more than $700 million to various and sundry creditors around the world.  To take just one example, Trump presently owes Deutsche Bank more than 300 million and will soon hold the fate of the bank in his tiny hands.  The DOJ is in negotiations with the bank regarding a $14 billion dollar fine for its part in the global economic meltdown in 2008.  If the case is not settled by January 20, Trump's administration will be in charge of the ongoing case.  The question is who has more leverage;  Deutsche Bank knows plenty about The Donald's business which could be leaked to the media, but Trump has the threat of a possible business killing fine at his disposal.  It sounds like a poster child for conflict of interest.  How many more of these types of cases  will come up in the next four years.  Stay tuned.

The Hacked election

Doubling down on whatever lie he is telling in the moment is Donald Trump's signature response to criticism.  Losing the popular vote by nearly 3 million makes him question the very legitimacy of elections.   Claiming a overwhelming electoral college victory is equally egregious.  By less than a hundred thousand votes spread over 3 states is his real margin of victory out of nearly 130,000.000 votes cast.  Now comes the CIA assessment  that Russia hacked into our election to tip the scale in Trump's favor.  Added to the disastrous intervention by the FBI's James Comey, it would seem the Clinton campaign was struggling against several simultaneous assaults from different directions.  Between Comey the hack and the Russian hackers it was enough to tip the election to Trump.  According to Nate Silver, had the election been held the day before the FBI "revelations", there is no doubt Hillary would be staffing her cabinet.  Now we are being treated to the Trump circus and the implication the Russian connection is a "false flag" operation carried out by our government.  It's going to be a long four years.

Winter blues

I don't know how many times I've shared this, but, I'll say it again;  I HATE WINTER!   Fortunately, I had the winter tires put on the car on Saturday, so it wasn't a stressful trip this morning.  But a steady 60 MPH still makes for a long trip and the many fellow drivers with less than optimum tires on their cars make for an interesting contrast in styles.  Pickup trucks, the ubiquitous workhorse on the NCR are hazardous no matter what kind of tires they sport unless they have heavy weights over the rear axles.  Many who share the winter highways can't afford snow tires and continue through the Dec.- March period on "all season" radial tires.  You might as well put ice skates on your car when we have weather like this morning's.  Canada, sensibly requires winter tires on passenger vehicles from Dec. til spring.  It would be interesting to compare accident rates in northern US and Canada during the winter.  All I know is it is a long and nasty winter and I won't be sorry to experience the Vernal equinox in 2017.

outrage exhaustion

While I have begun to consume news again in the wake of the ascent of Trump, I can't take the steady drumbeat of outrage from the left leaning media sites and shows I frequent.  While I agree with most of the commentary, I just can't find the matches to light my hair on fire so often.  (Finding my hair is another problem).   Paul Krugman's columns and blog is a case in point.  I wholeheartedly believe most of what he writes, but the relentless pessimism and the continual blaming of the white working class in a few rust belt states is wearing on me.  Yes, these people are voting against their economic interests, yes, there is more than a whiff of racism to their complaints and after 8 years of a black man, a white woman was a bridge too far for many men in the working and middle classes.  I get all of this, but outrage is exhausting when it is continuous.

Perhaps overly pessimistic

According to a new study, optimistic people are more likely to live longer than their pessimistic peers.  I guess that means a spike in mortality among democrats during the next 4 years.  The study doesn't say anything about haters, but I would imagine Trump voters fit into this category which can't be healthy.  On top of this, a polling company surveyed voters in the aftermath of the Nov. 8 travesty and it would seem Trump voters live in their own information bubble which excludes the rest of us.  While most of the rest of us would love to see Trump's tax returns, 57% of The Donald's partisans think he should never show the rest of us his possible conflicts of interest.  After seeing this poll, you can be sure the PEOTUS will never make this information available.  Likewise, as long as the future administration makes it safe to hate again, you can be sure his partisans will believe any and all of the lies that will continue to flow from the incipient administration.  After all, facts are for losers!

A sad spectacle

As the Trump transition team announces more potential hires, the picture of an actual Trump administration becomes clearer.  It won't be pretty.  As an authoritarian type, the president elect seems to have a fetish for retired generals.  Michael Flynn, his pick for NSA chief buys into every nutty conspiracy theory, including the supposed child sex ring Hillary was running out of a pizza place in D.C.  That turned out well as an unstable idiot from North Carolina toting an assault rifle took a shot in the restaurant as he was "self investigating" the rumor.  Meanwhile, Flynn is supposed to bring actionable intelligence to the Oval Office!   Another general, "Mad Dog"  Mattis is being nominated for Secretary of Defense, and yet another, David Petraeus, who lost his last gig at the CIA for leaking classified documents to his lover is on the short list for Sec. of State.  Oh, and Ben Carson, whose nutty pronouncements were too much for even the rabid base of the GOP is being nominated for HUD Secretary, mainly on the basis of his being the correct color to correspond with the Urban part of the HUD!   So, this is the way our country will be governed under The Donald.  I guess it proves the theory of American exceptionalism...

Passing of the torch

Tiger Woods played competitive golf over the weekend at one of golf's "silly season" events, The Hero World Challenge.  This is nothing more than an opportunity for 18 of the sports current celebrities to gather in the Bahamas and get a big payday with little or no pressure.  The addition of Wood's, the tournament's putative host was designed to add luster to an otherwise pedestrian event.  Woods has not played a competitive round in nearly two years and the game has probably passed him by.  At nearly 40 years of age with a thrice surgically repaired back and the knees of a 60 year old, he can't drive the ball with the big boys anymore and his putting stroke looks more than a little rusty.  Yet the commentators want him to be the Tiger of 2001-2009 when he dominated the PGA tour like a colossus.  It would be good for the game if he was able to regain the mantle of invincibility and swat away challenges from the likes of Dustin Johnson, Rory and even Phil, but judging by what he showed on the weekend, it looks like the new model Tiger is just another PGA middle of the pack golfer who will cash a big check most weeks, but play mostly forgettable golf.  It will be a sad end to a glorious career if Woods allows it to happen.

Rearguard actions and consequences

With the recount of votes in Wisconsin underway and news that Trump's victory margin in Pennsylvania is shrinking as absentee ballots are counted, many Clinton voters are taking heart and hoping the electoral college will agree with the popular vote and install Mrs. Clinton as the 45th president this month.  A word of caution is in order.  Actually several words.  Although the Founders envisioned the electoral college as a corrective to prevent people like Donald Trump from becoming the highest elected official by using their collective wisdom to vote for the best candidate, over time, the purpose has been eclipsed by an unthinking fealty to the candidate who claimed the most votes in their particular state.  This gives states with small populations (think Wyoming) outsize power in presidential elections.  No matter.  this is the system we have validated by over 200 years of practice.  Should Hillary somehow miraculously prevail in enough recounted states to validly claim election I believe we would face a civil war in these United States.  This would make the donnybrook of Bush vs. Gore look like a church picnic.  While I would not shy from support of the winner of the popular vote if the electors validated her win, I think the country would literally be torn apart by the strife which would result.  We live in a divided nation where it is a proven fact nearly half the population is too apathetic to vote, a quarter lives in a fact based pluralistic society and almost as many lives the experience of a patriarchal, sexist, xenophobic order and is willing to go down fighting for it, regardless of legal niceties.   It could get very ugly and I doubt the nation, as we know it, would survive.

Seed catalogs and new seasons

My favorite seed catalog was carefully placed on the dining room table by the Divine Mrs. M yesterday.  She knows full well my obsession.   The illustrations of fresh chard and juicy tomatoes jumped out as I picked it up.  I can't wait to sit by the fireside with a glass of wine and delve into the latest and greatest gardening advances on offer.  It's a lot better than obsessing over the coming kleptocracy in D.C.