Choosing sides

The theatrics are over.  It's time to put up or shut up.   After seeing a terrified but calm Christine Blasey Ford make a credible sexual assault case against Bret Kavanaugh and the latter going over the top and in typical right wingnut style projecting republican tactics on democrats by accusing them of a conspiracy against his nomination it will be up to a handful of senators to decide if this nomination will go forward.   That a partisan hack republican, who has spent his entire career currying favor with the worst elements of the GOP should be rewarded with a lifetime sinecure on the SCOTUS, especially after what Dr. Ford testified to is almost beyond belief.   One thing his confirmation will do is ignite a firestorm in the midterm elections which will almost certainly sweep republicans out of the house and senate.  I don't believe they realize the latent energy they are liberating among women and minorities.  I see it in the expressions of dismay from the Divine Mrs. M.  She doesn't think her feelings are general, but I disagree.  After seeing Dr. Ford's dismissal by republicans on the judiciary committee, millions of survivors of sexual assault and harassment will make their feelings known in November.  I have a feeling the GOP will regret their participation in this farce for a long time to come.   I'm sure President Gillibrand's nominees for the court will help with the reckoning.

Time to buckle up

After watching a few minutes of the *president's press conference yesterday I was feeling disoriented.  The toxic BS he was spewing and the infantile language and syntax made it seem like a therapy session for someone with a severe mental problem.  Most fact checkers heads had exploded after the first few questions.   Only the tRump faithful could have said this went well.  The topper was his disrespectful references to our northern neighbor and its Prime Minister.  Obviously he feels he can insult Canadians because their economy is only a fraction of the US.   However, they are still our biggest trading partner and they make up a disproportionate share of the economies of the states which border Canada.  Even more so the counties immediately adjacent to the border.  If Canadians are made to feel unwelcome, sales tax revenue and businesses will be affected.  tRump ran up huge vote totals in many of these places, including my own Clinton County.  I wonder how many of the small business owners who voted enthusiastically for the *president are starting to wonder if perhaps they may have sabotaged themselves.

Women and power

Rarely do the words "Women" and "Power"  appear in the same sentence.  More often, "powerless" is the descriptive.  That may be changing.  I believe, despite the Divine Mrs. M's gloomy election forecast, that women's white hot rage at the sexual abuse which has been pervasive in our society.  Individually women do feel isolated and alone, but I think many will surprise themselves in November with the power of the ballot.   Republicans underestimate this dynamic at their peril.

Priorities

Naturally, the media I consume was all over the latest allegations of sexual impropriety by Brett Kavanaugh.   The New Yorker, which basically precipitated the #metoo movement with its story about Harvey Weinstein's perversions came forward with another accuser from Kavanaugh's days at Yale where he seemed to participate in one drunken debauch after another.  In a just world, he would have withdrawn his name for consideration and slunk back to his sinecure on the circuit court.  Meanwhile, the Cape Fear river in North Carolina has still not crested and it is a week since Florence plowed ashore.  In a just world, people would be more worried about the implications of that story than whether a drunken frat boy exposed himself to a woman 35 years ago.  What a world we live in.

Soap Operas

As usual in the tRump era, truth is always stranger than fiction.  The Kavanaugh saga continues to roil the national conversation.  Now an obscure but highly placed apparatchik who worked for the late unlamented Antonin Scalia and is a friend of the SCOTUS nominee is now suggesting in tweets that while Christine Blasey Ford may have been assaulted, it was by a Kavanaugh look a like.  He even names the poor schmo.  Unless he has some ironclad proof, Mr. Whalen has just opened himself to a libel suit.  Meanwhile, Dr. Ford now seems to have public opinion on her side as the Senate Judiciary committee majority twists in the wind, grasping at straws to explain why they need to confirm this serial liar and partisan hack to the high court as soon as possible.  Personally, I think this is a tale of 12 (including Kavanaugh) entitled white men who believe they can run roughshod over norms and procedures because they can and have always been able to.   #me too may have finally shown them that in the 21st century white male privilege, while durable may be dented by those with the courage to take them on and the issue to do it with.

Our robot overlords

Two stories I read/listened to this morning inspired this post.   On North Country Public Radio this morning, the political correspondent, Bryan Mann, was reporting difficulty in reaching our insular congressional representative, Elise Stefanik.  She has not responded to several requests for an interview.  This does not surprise me as Stefanik is about as likable and articulate as a fence post.  It seems her reps spend time on facebook and social media and shun all but a few sympathetic reporters and legacy media outlets.  A short time later I read a post by Kevin Drum on Mother Jones, reporting on the latest iteration of Aibo, the Sony mechanical dog.  It seems this model is able to charm humans much like a flesh and blood canine is able to.  It occurs to me now that Stefanik may not be a real human at all, but a Sony robot programmed to lead us.  However, they left out the charm and humanity they programmed into the dog.  Perhaps a cute little tail would help our congresscritter  turn on the charm!

Full speed ahead

The husband and father in me is horrified by Christine Blasey Ford's description of attempted rape by a couple of entitled prep school a**holes, one of which was the GOP's putative SCOTUS nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.  I'm sure the woman's father would have some choice word's to describe his daughter's alleged attacker.   A very high percentage of women have endured sexual harassment and assault during their lifetime's, but not many come forward because of the inevitability of their being labeled sluts or worse.  This type of behavior has been going on since the dawn of time, but as the sexes approach equality and more fathers of daughters treat them as equals, the less tolerance there is  for the "good ole boys" treatment of an alleged sexual assaulter.  The republicans may ram Kavanaugh through to the Supreme Court, but they may pay more of a price than they think.

Newly normal

1 in 1000 year flooding rains on a yearly basis seem to be the new normal in the wake (literally) of Hurricane Florence's march through the Carolinas and into the Northeast.  Harvey had a similar effect on the flood plain around Houston last year.  Throw in Maria's effect on Puerto Rico and Irma on the West Indies and the picture becomes clearer.  Warmer oceans mean more energy for huge storms that will wreak havoc on coastal areas.  It is only a matter of time before insurance companies will look at the forecast for continued climate change and either jack up insurance premiums to the point where most people cannot afford them or else discontinue offering policies in coastal areas.  At that point, the government becomes the insurer of last resort and national bankruptcy follows.   People need to make their votes match the urgency of the situation and elect representatives who take the threat of anthropomorphic climate change seriously and are prepared to move toward a carbonless economy in the not too distant future.

Anita Hill redux

This time the story may have a different ending.  When Anita Hill came forward during Clarence Thomas' supreme court confirmation hearings she was savaged by Republicans and Democrats alike.  "uncle Joe" Biden, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee was the ring leader of the charade which stripped Hill of her humanity and ignored the pain she went through.   Dems, at least, can't do that if/when Kavanaugh's accuser appears before the committee with her account of drunken sexual assault in the late 1980s.  Certainly any republican women in the senate cannot  in good conscience do anything less than make their best effort to investigate the accuser's claims.  Of course even without this latest charge, Kavanaugh disqualified himself from anything but censure and a possible jail cell because of his penchant for lying before the senate during two different confirmation hearings.   Thanks to our puritanical society, drunken sexual assault allegations will far outweigh lies when all is said and done.   Too bad the Assaulter in chief is not held to the same standard.

Sociopathy

I meant to write about the sociopathy of *president the other day, but current events drove it out of my mind.   However, in the wake of the Hurricane Maria controversy it bears a revisit.  It seems a scientific study in the wake of storm which devastated Puerto Rico a little over a year ago shows that up to 3,000 residents died before their time due to conditions related to the storm and the bungled government response.  tRump and his media apologists; Rush Limbaugh et. al. can't bring themselves to believe that someone who died of unnatural causes due to power outages several weeks after the storm was actually killed by said storm.  This is not even the point.  The president is supposed to be the empathizer in chief.  As the mayor of San Juan noted, all he had to do was apologize and feel some of the island residents' pain.  Instead, he dismissed the deaths of 3000 people as a Democratic Party plot to smear him.  As with any sociopath, he is incapable of the simple human trait of being able to identify with fellow humans.   As one pundit put it, "The worst human being in the country is still president".

This and that

Driven out of the headlines by Hurricane Florence, the Kavanaugh nomination to the Supreme Court churns ahead.  It seems unless the dems can prove the Judge was an ax murderer in the not too distant past the GOP has the votes to ensconce him on the high court for the next several decades.  I wouldn't bet the farm on Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski siding with the pro choice arguments against Kavanaugh.  McConnell better hurry up with this nomination and many others, since it is looking more and more like the Blue Tsunami may flip the Senate this November.  Lyin Ted Cruz is in a flop sweat in Texas as Beto O'Rourke prepares to eat his lunch.  If the dems can win in Texas, albeit against a pathetic candidate, it should make Dean Heller in Nevada start looking to break the lease on his D.C. digs.  The weather remains moderate in the North Country and the last planting of beans is ready to pick.  Spinach is growing strongly and the last lettuce planting will beat the first frost.  It's my favorite time of year!

Climate Change anyone?

The latest forecast for Hurricane Florence is predicting the monster storm will stall over the coast of North Carolina and dump up to 35 inches of rain in some areas.  After dropping this Biblical total the latest track shows it meandering down the coast of South Carolina and possibly making landfall at Savannah, Ga.   Of course, it's still early and the storm won't even approach the coast until tomorrow evening, but it sounds devastating.  Florence could potentially strengthen to a Category 5 storm before landfall, making it the first such storm in recorded history to strike the |US mainland this far north.  I think there are millions of climate change deniers in Florence's path who are about to have a change of heart regarding anthropomorphic driven changes in our weather patterns. 

The only thing tRump has to fear

Just kidding.  The Donald has lots of things to fear; flipping associates, the Russia investigation, money laundering charges, etc.  But the immediate threat to his popularity is the devastating investigation of the White House by Bob Woodward.  The reporter of Watergate fame is out there plugging his book on every media platform and is calling for America to wake up to the threat represented by Cheeto Jesus and the out of control executive branch.  The excerpts which have been published so far show an executive branch in panic mode.   Coupled with the anonymous op-ed in the NYT last week, it's a one-two punch which would probably lead to the resignation of anyone more self aware than the present occupant of the Oval Office.  One thing you can say about the *president;  he has elevated farce to an art form few could match.  Inspector Clouseau  would doff his cap in homage.

Homestretches

It's that time of the season.  The leaves are turning colors, the summer vegetables are starting to wane, the Yankees are competing for the pennant and the Giants look like they want another high draft pick again this year.  Despite knowing better, I made one last planting of spinach on Saturday.  Hopefully it gets big enough to winter over and provide an early spring green.  The weather was dry over the weekend, but rain is promised later today through tonight so the fall veggies should get a boost.   Although the temps were in the low to mid 40s the past couple of nights, warmer weather is in the forecast, so even the late August plantings of spinach should mature in time for the farmers' market ends on Columbus Day weekend.   Asked about the gardening season by friends at the Battle of Plattsburgh festivities I said it was mostly positive, although on the dry side.  As with all things related to farming and gardening things could always be better! 

Old Dogs, old tricks

With the twin spectacles of the Kavanaugh hearings and the snipe hunt in the White House, the pundit class has plenty of fodder on which to chew.  As usual, it is all sound and fury, signifying nothing.   Despite Democrats' best efforts Kavanaugh is likely to be confirmed by the herd of sheep also known as the Senate republican caucus.  Rachel Maddow holds out some hope that Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins may bolt after the latest revelation that partisan hack Kavanaugh lied through his teeth to them by saying he believed Roe vs. Wade is settled law.  He forgot to mention he doesn't believe that when it comes to the Supreme Court deciding it!  Collins got rolled during the tax cut debate and will probably again express her belief that the nominee will do the right thing.  In this case it means thwarting or delaying progressive legislation for the next 30-40 years.  Meanwhile, at Camp Runamuck, the counselors are hiding under the furniture as the *president rants at their perfidy.  The comparison of The Donald to King Lear also comes to mind, but this administration leans more toward farce than tragedy at this point.   Also, their has to be some sympathy for the main character. 

More of the same

As if things couldn't get any worse for tRump and the GOP, now comes an "essay" from a probable appointee of the*president who was granted anonymity by the NYT to basically announce he was part of a babysitting cabal dedicated to curbing the worst excesses of The Donald.  This, of course, let to an extended rant by the *president and handwringing by the usual republican suspects.  The latest polls, which haven't even taken this latest fiasco into account show tRump's approval percentage in the mid 30s.  The Blue Wave is starting to look like a tsunami at this point, although it remains to be seen how much damage can still be done before some restraints are placed on this heedless, lawless mountebank.

Obsessing

"Fear", the new Bob Woodward book about the tRump *presidency is out and naturally, the left wing media is all over it.   It turns out Woodward mostly corroborates Michael Wolff's and Omarosa's tell all books about a White House in turmoil trying to restrain a chief executive most of his staff calls an idiot behind his back.   Woodward puts a sheen of respectability on these hot takes and despite denials from an obviously embarrassed staff, this latest reportage pretty much puts to rest any claims The Donald may make concerning his performance in office.  Being compared unfavorably to a fifth or sixth grader is probably an insult to 10 and 11 year olds.  The scary thing is this dolt inherited a good economy and decent relations with most countries and so far has done his best to screw the pooch.   The one crisis which could have benefitted from executive branch management, Hurricane Maria and it's devastation of Puerto Rico, was bungled from the get go and pretty much proves that tRump is very much not ready for prime time.  We can only hope we get through the next two years without anything else going wrong.

Same old

Laboring in the garden yesterday in 90 degree weather was curiously refreshing.   I sprayed for cabbage worm (organically) uprooted weeds, then watched as a thunderstorm undid most of that work without easing the chronic dryness which is stressing the later plantings of cole crops and spinach.  Altogether we received about .2 inch of rain which was almost worse than nothing.  The Divine Mrs. M believes farmers in general and myself in particular are inveterate complainers who would be unhappy no matter what weather conditions obtain.  I have to agree with her in most respects.  However, as I said, despite the hot weather and inadequate rainfall it was a good day overall.