The Deplorables

Chris Hayes on MSNBC has taken a lot of heat from right wing media and some supposedly centrist pundits for saying what has been self evidently true, namely that a significant slice of tRump loyalists are racist, authoritarian and thoroughly deplorable.   Hillary was right, although she should have called the entire shitshow more forcefully and not apologized.  Ben Shapiro, posing as a right wing #never Trumper trolled Hayes, saying that calling out the hard core base just drives them into the arms of would be authoritarians.  Of course that is like saying the right's calumnies regarding Hillary, Nancy Pelosi, Obama, et. al. is driving the left toward the fringe.  The lefties have had such people.  Alan Grayson and Cynthia McKinney come to mind, but so far, people like that have been marginalized in the Democratic party.  No so in the GOP.  It seems the sleazier and more hateful the candidate the more the base supports him or her.  It is on the leadership of the party to denounce the Alex Jones, Rush Limbaughs and all the rest of the wingnuts the republicans have come to depend on.  Don't hold your breath waiting for Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell to grow a spine.  It's not going to happen until their party is crushed in congressional districts across the country.

Free Speech and the consequences thereof

Certainly Roseanne Barr is free to fire up any racist rant on her twitter account.  However, she is also liable for the consequences; in this case the cancellation of her hit reboot of the old Roseanne show.  In the days before social media on the internet became a thing, racists like Barr could offer up comparisons of black women with apes and then deny it if anyone called her on the comment.  Now, with screenshots capturing the tweet for posterity, even deleting the offensive reference does not provide deniability.  The intriguing question is how the tweeter in chief seems to remain immune to the consequences of his internet blathering.

Climate Change, agriculture and miscellaneous

Now, when tropical storms impact the US we are suddenly talking about feet of rain instead of inches!  Tropical Storm Alberto is dragging gigatons of moisture in its wake and flash flooding is occurring from Florida into North Carolina and up the US east coast.  Agriculture does not work well in situations like this.  Most cultivated cropland is susceptible to erosion under the intense rainfall of these storms.  Climate change theory predicted this as one of the many weather effects driven by the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere.  Heavy soils especially are difficult to work or grow when inundated by heavy rainfall.  The lack of oxygen in saturated soils kills roots and crops.   Here on the NCR we haven't had extreme precipitation so far this year, but high water tables have prevented some soils from drying and has delayed planting.  Heavy rains at any time in the next month could be a disaster for some growers.   One my micro farm I have several different soil regimes and most of them are dry, but a single 5 inch or more event could drown several areas and make them unplantable for several weeks, effectively ending my growing season for several crops.  Has there been any admission from government sources regarding evidence of climate change?

Cruelly incompetent

The theme for today running through the blogs and pundits I follow on a regular basis is nothing new.  The tRump administration is by turns both cruel and incompetent and nothing proves this thesis better than the news from ICE.  It seems after forcibly separating children from their parents after the families were caught crossing the border illegally, the government lost track of nearly 1500 children supposedly placed with foster parents, "or whatever" in the immortal words of White House chief of staff John Kelly.   These children may have now fallen into involuntary servitude, sex trafficking or they may have merely been misplaced.  Just another day in the reign of error of Orange Caligula.

Prom night jitters

Many analogies have been trotted out to explain Cheeto Jesus' cancellation of the "Summit" with North Korea's Kim Jong Un.  I think the most persuasive narrative is that of the mean girls scenario.  One or the other of these two narcissistic idiots was going to cancel and it looks like mean Donald was quicker on the trigger than his North Korean counterpart.  Alas, in this case the whole prom will be called off!

Grifter in Chief

Now it is revealed that the Ukraine paid as much as $600,000 to Michael Cohen for the purpose of arranging a meeting between their president and ours.  Right up until the last moment it appeared the Ukrainian might be embarrassed by getting a handshake and a photo op with Cheeto Jesus, but he was finally granted a sit down meeting with tRump.  Amazingly, when Poroshenko returned home, the prosecutor's office in Ukraine informed Robert Mueller's investigators they would no longer be working to supply evidence regarding |Paul Manafort's doings in their country.  Can we spell quid pro quo!

gigging economy

Kevin Drum points out the so-called "gig economy" employs less than 1% of all workers in the US.  It's basically Uber drivers, plus a few other companies which employ so called "independent contractors.  This allows them to not pay benefits such as overtime, health insurance, vacation time, etc.   However, what Drum misses is the large number of companies which under employ the people they do hire.  A case in point are the local supermarkets in this area.   They are always hiring, but as one woman who gained employment at the local Market 32 store, she scheduled for 10 hours/week, with no promise of more time.    Also, her schedule varies from week to week, making it difficult to line up other jobs to make ends meet.   If  this isn't part of the gig economy, I don't know what is.  I'm sure if you count all the under employed minimum wage workers in the country it would probably be closer to 10% of all employees. 

Enough already

I started to watch the latest Rachel Maddow show last night, but couldn't get past her opening monologue.   While I usually tune out later in the hour as the commercials pile up, Rachel's show openings are mostly good primer's of Cheeto Jesus' scandal du jour.  However, last night's pearl clutching, fainting couch rag on the DOJ was beyond anything she has done recently.  She opined the current assistant attorney general, Rod Rosenstein and FBI head Christopher Wray were giving away the store to tRump's minions in Congress.  I guess she was counseling steely eyed determination to deny any info regarding and ongoing investigation.  This is probably a good strategy when dealing with an administration steeped in the rule of law.  But the abject lawlessness of today's iteration would result in the termination of Rosenstein and Wray despite the chorus of approbation it would inspire.  According to at least one pundit, Rosenstein is an accomplished bureaucratic infighter who will play out the department's acquiescence to these latest demands in a manner which preserves the privacy of the special counsel's investigation.  I hope that is a better take than Rachel's.  Our democracy deserves better than either, but I'll take comfort wherever available.

Garden pace accelerating

It was an up and down weekend in the garden.   I made the first foray to the local farmer's market on Saturday.  It was overcast with the promise of rain, but the wintered over spinach would not wait, so it was harvested along with asparagus.  We didn't get the amount of precip they predicted, but .3t" was enough for the moment.  More is predicted for tomorrow.   Meanwhile, the winter squash seeds are germinating in peat pots in the cold frames and the peppers, eggplant and tomatoes are getting ready for transplanting to the open garden.  It will be a busy couple of weeks coming up.

Setting the record straight

When the national media can spare a few minutes from covering the latest outrages perpetuated by the administration of Cheeto Jesus, they are all in a tizzy about the democratic party careening to the left side of the ideological spectrum.   A $15.00/hr. minimum wage, parental leave, medicare for all and free college tuition are now a communistic agenda if you go by the pearl clutching reports in the NYT.  This will feed into the media narrative of increasing polarization in the population in advance of the coming elections.  Meanwhile, to most people in the street, the above agenda is popular with upwards of 60% of them.   I'll bet most of the remaining 40% would agree if not constrained by a tribal identity with the GOP.   The Democrats need to stand for something other than a pale contrast with republicans.   The strong showing in the primaries by those who champion policies designed to make the average person's life a little better proves that.  It will be interesting to see if turnout at the polls in November validates that strategy.

Flexing progressive muscle

As the primary season rolls along, democrats are riding a wave of progressive enthusiasm to victory in many races where the choice is between  young, liberal woman and an older center leaning white man.  Of course, in many of these congressional districts, the newly minted candidates will be running against an entrenched republican.  That is definitely the case in NY 21 where the well funded GOPer, Elise Stefanik will be supported by plenty of outside money.  Nevertheless, at least 5 democrats are vying for the chance to challenge her.  As with most republicans, Stefanik toes the party line and brags on her support for Fort Drum, the North Country's biggest military base.  Unfortunately for her constituents, when it comes to bread and butter issues, she is typical of her party.  But with a long history of electing republicans, this district is a virtual suicide run for democrats.  The only dem to win in the last hundred years did so when 2 republicans ran against each other and split the vote.   Bill Owens defended his seat once, but retired after 2 terms.  The odious Stefanik won against a weak opponent and crushed the dems and the Green Party candidates in the subsequent election.  The greens are not running this year and a strong progressive with a good message may just stand a chance this time around.  If they can win here, progressives can win anywhere in America.

Identity voters

Several commentators have made similar points regarding tRump voters in the past few days.  Whether it is the right wing media constantly reminding heartland conservatives they are despised by coastal elites (read democrats) or voters who identify with the Donald's bogus stories of how he came back from bankruptcies or just outright racism and misogyny, the theme is for most of these people, reasoned arguments have no efficacy.  They simply want to believe liberals are evil and brown people are coming to take their jobs, their women and their most precious possessions.  After listening to Faux News for 5 minutes, it's hard to argue with those who have given up trying to convince somewhere around 40% of our fellow Americans they don't need to hate everyone who doesn't agree with them.  What is necessary is to convince most of the other 60% we need to defeat the facilitators of the present regime.  

Another outrage exhaustion post

So, tRumpy wants to save jobs in China!  Right after the Chinese government wrote a half billion dollar check supporting an Indonesian development which includes a Trump hotel and golf course.  Meanwhile, in an apparent middle finger to common decency, an administration staffer who laughingly stated John McCain's opposition to Gina Haspel for CIA chief is irrelevant because "he's dying anyway", is still on the job and undisciplined.  The grift and bad manners flow from the top and most of us knew what the *president's M.O. was from the start of his campaign.  Unfortunately, thanks to the right wing media machine his most ardent supporters are either unaware of the latest atrocities or have had them explained away as meaningless.  and the beat goes on....

Celebrating Moms

I spent Sunday morning with a bunch of Mothers.   The one who gave birth to our children, the ones who have provided Nana and Pop with grandchildren to spoil and a fellow grandchild spoiler.  I missed the woman who gave me a place in this world, but a phone call assured me she is doing well despite her 88 years. It was a pleasant time, but it felt just a little contrived.   We spend one day per year recognizing all the women in our lives do for us, then ignoring their contributions for the other 364 days.  Women are still discriminated against and doubtless Erica and Hannah will suffer their share of gender based indignities while their brothers will get the benefit of the patriarchy which undergirds our society at this point.  Celebrate mothers by reducing the discrimination they face on a daily basis and we will honor them with more than a few flowers and mushy cards.

The death of irony

Irony is a subject that has already died a thousand deaths, but Oliver North, the recently elected president of the NRA just dealt the term another coup de gras.   I don't know who asked him about tRump's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, however, North volunteered that we should sanction anyone who does business with the ayatollahs.  For those of you who are too young to remember, North was instrumental in selling missiles to a sanctioned Iran and turning the money into support for counter revolutions in Central America.  I can't write another word!

Gardening on steroids

The last 10 days of drier weather have accelerated the pace in the garden.   Besides having to water newly planted beds on a daily basis, I have had to push up plantings of onions and other time-sensitive crops like early potatoes.  Fortunately the larger expanses of the secret garden are now tillable.  The only problem is the lack of time.  Having lost nearly two weeks of work due to the excessively wet and cold April, the crush of trying to get in long season crops, while maintaining planting schedules and watering regimes is hectic to say the least.  Throw in the upcoming Mother's Day holiday and a muted desire for more golf time and reality is about to monkey wrench the burgeoning planting season.  Oh, and did I mention the grass is growing at warp speed!

New Deals

As the pall of the Michael Cohen scandals begins to descend on the tRump administration, the dealmaker in chief just scuttled the Iran deal on nukes and touted his upcoming summit with N. Korea as proof that only he can make the world safe from the "Axis of Evil".  Until the actual weapons start to detonate over our cities, the late night talk shows should have ample monologue material!   As Kevin Drum pointed out in the aftermath of tRump's announcement, a Saudi Prince just purchased the Plaza Hotel in New York for about $600,000,000.  That's about $350,000,000 less than Orange Julius spent to buy and renovate the same structure in the late 1980's.  Nuff said.

Power and the people

The NCR experienced a severe windstorm on Friday evening, leaving thousands, including the Divine Mrs. M and myself without electricity for 2 1/2 days.  Not having power for an extended period always reminds me the slender thread on which our entire civilization depends.  Aside from losing the contents of our refrigerator and having to avail ourselves of my daughter Merry's hospitality for showers, it was a reasonably unthreatening  experience.  However, recent reports of Russian hacking of our power grid say that if the entire grid was to go down it could be months before power could be restored.  As someone once put it, we are only collectively 2 missed meals away from a revolution.  The idea we could be out of power for 6 months chills my blood.  I sure hope someone is working on plans to ameliorate the worst case scenario.  Our civilization is literally at stake.

Rudy to the rescue

Trailing the tattered rags of his reputation, Giuliani rode into the arena on his charger and leveled his lance at the facts.  The facts, unfortunately proved impervious to the charger and the lance and tRump's knight wound up on his keister on national TV.  Outside of his eldest daughter, it would appear The Donald is prepared to sacrifice the reputation of anyone stupid enough to entrust him with said reputation.  Rudy is merely the latest to immolate himself for this travesty of a human being.  We are approaching the endgame, and it doesn't look pretty.

Hurtingly stupid

It would seem the *president's approval ratings can't go much lower than 40%.  Even Tricky Dick and the Shrub had lower numbers of gullible people willing to support them before they exited their respectively presidencies.  For some reason, a substantial portion of the population wants to be lied to and positively revels in disdain with which they are regarded by The Donald.  The Divine Mrs. M is already worried the vaunted "Blue Wave" will recede before the November elections, leaving us with a republican congress which will erode what is left of our democracy.  The key here is the economy.  Having inherited a country still recovering from the last republican wrecking crew, tRump and his henchman opened up a massive deficit at precisely the wrong time and the effects will start to show up in the next few months.   Already, increasing gas prices are starting to bite consumers.  Skyrocketing health insurance bills are on the way and the Fed is about to blow up interest rates, which will affect the auto and real estate sectors.  Consumer protections are also eroding.  Although there is a hard core of tRump supporters who would presumably look the other way if their hero shot and killed someone on 5th Avenue, the softer support will withdraw in the face of the daily idiocies we are being subjected to.  I still believe a message of competence and caring for democracy is a winning proposition in November.  I am betting enough of my fellow countrymen feel that way.

The grass is always greener

Well, it's May and the grass is finally greening up.  I may have to disinter the lawn mower and get it started this weekend, although many areas are too waterlogged to hold the weight of the machine.  The garden plantings continue to fall behind schedule and even trusty perennials such as the asparagus are barely poking out of the cold and soggy ground.  The onion plants arrived yesterday and it looks like they will be sitting unplanted for the forseeable future.  I could go on, but you get the picture.

It's the economy, once more

According to the numbers, the economy is doing well.  This should bode well for republicans in the upcoming elections.  But for most people, it doesn't feel like things are any better than they were before the election of the *president.  The employment rate is hovering around 4%, but as with similar figures during the Obama era, there seem to be many more unemployed and underemployed than the numbers would indicate.  The stock market is down considerably and while the connection between Wall St. and Main St. is tenuous, when stocks are down, ordinary people's confidence is shaken.  Meanwhile, the republican's vaunted tax "reform" bill, aka the tax cut for corporations and the 1% has performed like a damp firecracker.  Business investment remains anemic and there are few stories of corporations sharing their tax windfalls with workers.  How the GOP managed to get anyone to believe their tax cutting magic would supercharge the economy in the face of numerous examples of failure is beyond me.   As one pundit put it, it's hard for someone to understand an issue if his paycheck depends on him not understanding.   So, we lurch toward November with a historically unpopular president and a party in power whose only legislative accomplishment is not doing what was promised for the economy.   If I was a republican strategist, I think I would be taking a long sabbatical.