They really don't care

      Republicans all along the political spectrum, from tRump to Susan Collins really don't care whether their constituents live or die.   Senate Republicans proved that assertion by blocking a veterans' health care bill after they voted to approve it.   Jon Stewart's pressure campaign may be enough to push the bill over the finish line if enough voters respond to his calls to shame these senators.   Republicans have traditionally been known as the national security party, but as Stewart notes, they never met a war they didn't support or a veteran they were ready to screw over.

     Meanwhile, Susan Collins' fee-fees were hurt when Democrats unveiled the Joe Manchin Inflation Reduction and Climate Change Act.  Therefore with a few crocodile tears, she announced the same sex marriage bill she has been working on with Democrats is now a dead issue.   

     These politicians are letting us know who they are and what they stand for.  What are we going to do about it?

Doggie days

         Congress is ready to do even less than usual with the August recess coming up.   The recess is an artifact of the time before air conditioners when Washington DC lived up to its reputation as a sub-tropical swamp.   Legislators and lobbyists alike fled to their home districts, especially those with mountains to sit out the rest of the summer.' 

      With A/C, there is no excuse to avoid the climate.  Congress Critters instead plead "constituent services" as the excuse for ducking the peoples' business for at least a month.  Democrats especially are egregiously shameless as they are looking at losing their majorities in the House and possibly the Senate.  The death of serious governance is around the corner and instead of using every possible minute to pass legislation, Democrats are literally heading for the hills.  WTF!

second halves

        As we approach the first of August, the baseball and gardening seasons are both past their midway points.   In both cases, I have been pleasantly surprised.   The Yankees have the best record in baseball and look to win their division for the first time in several years.   Tweaking the lineup with a star pitcher and perhaps acquiring a better hitting outfielder than Joey Gallo would seem to be the only things necessary to ensure a trip to the World Series.

       Likewise, the garden here at Casa Monzeglio has been a pretty good work in progress.  The garlic harvest is in and despite receiving 6 hours of sun or less, I was surprised at how good it is.   I have always been advised that most vegetables require full sun from dawn to dusk.  But it seems vegetables are a lot like people.   They make the best of what they get.   The fall crops of greens and lettuces are going in over the next few weeks and the tomatoes and peppers are looking good.  My gardens won't win any prizes, but will keep me and the Divine Mrs. M busy in the kitchen this fall!

A story for our times

        The House Select Committee investigating the events of January 6, 2021 held another public hearing last night.  Despite the abundance of reporting on individual events on that day, the members of the committee are performing an immense service by making a coherent whole of the disparate parts of the story of an insurrection which had the potential to destroy the remaining elements of our democracy in the interests of keeping a hedonistic, manifestly unfit person in the presidency.

       The unspoken truth, unacknowledged even by the Committee is tRump wanted to cling to power to avoid having to pay for the many crimes he has committed throughout his ill fated career and which threaten his dotage with a variety of legal penalties.  Regardless, the narrative being supplied by Liz Cheney, et al. makes sense in that it traces the triggers for Jan. 6 to the point before the election when his own team came to grips with the data showing the failed former president losing both the popular and electoral vote to Joe Biden.

     An avalanche of new evidence and testimony will keep the committee busy at least through September with more hearings on the way.   I, for one, will tune in.

No Mea Culpa

       Today' NYT features several opinion page columnists explaining why they were wrong about something on which they pontificated.  Paul Krugman explained why he was wrong to discount inflation, Michelle Goldberg on why she should have advocated for due process instead of demanding Al Franken's resignation from the Senate at the height of the #Me Too movement and Bret Stephens in perhaps the most stupid of the mea culpas explained why (in his own mind) he should not have criticized those who supported tRump in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.

      Stephens would have us believe economic and political considerations were uppermost in his supporters minds.  This would fly in the face of statistics showing the median tRump voter's income put them firmly in the middle class with few of the economic worries which plagued Clinton and Biden voters.  tRump's odious personal traits should supposedly have turned off these voters who in previous elections have insisted their votes are heavily influenced by the candidates' character.

     He also makes a reference to how these voters were failed by the political elite's mismanagement of the Afghanistan War and how tRump voters families bore the brunt of the mistakes.   Again, Stephens is straining at gnats.  A tiny percentage of America's families supplied the troops used in Iraq and Afghanistan.

      What Stephens fails again at explaining is why so many people supported the failed former president's hateful rhetoric and social policies while ignoring his support of legislation which shoveled immense amounts of wealth to the 1%.    It's really simple.   Many of our fellow countrymen are ignorant racist supporters of the patriarchy.  They are a small minority of approximately 30% of the population.  tRump gave them permission to let their intolerant, hateful freak flag fly.  Sorry, Mr. Stephens, your original column got it right.  No need to apologize.

Cooking the planet

        Despite everything known about the greenhouse effect and its impact on climate, the people who elect representatives to govern themselves or suffer under unelected tyrants have something in common.  They don't want to do anything about the problem if it costs a significant monetary effort on their part.  In poll after poll, people acknowledge we are heading towards a planet which will be hostile to human habitation.   But any fix which requires more than a token sacrifice is rejected.

      In ancient Greece, the city-states which formed the world's first democracy were continually warring against one another.   When war was declared, the voters would often appoint a 'tyrant" with extraordinary powers to rule the city for the duration of the war.  I know this is entering the touchy region of theology, especially for Christians, but humanity's best chance for survival may be a global government, headed by a tyrant who can make the decisions which the people have abdicated.   Global action is surely called for at this point, but I doubt my fellow citizens of the world will act before we cross the Rubicon of climate change.

Golf and climate change

      I wanted to do a post regarding golf and climate change sometime during the Open Championship at St. Andrews last week, but somehow it slipped by without a word typed.   So, here it is.  Unlike the vast majority of humanity, I like golf.   Chasing a little ball around for several hours with often frustrating results is often redeemed by one or two good shots.   As I go to the parking lot after a round, the preponderance of cars are late model and pricey.  Let's face it, golf is not a poor man's sport.

     Which brings us to St. Andrews and climate change.   Despite sitting on some of the most expensive real estate in the world, the Old Course looks like an eyesore compared with a similar country club in America.   With patches of prickly gorse scattered throughout the course and the sandy soil making it virtually impossible to keep the course green in summer, especially a droughty one, the management makes a virtue of necessity and plays up the traditions of Scottish golf.

    Even so, the next 50-100 years are likely to be cruel to the course.   Rising sea levels and the possibility of so called "perfect storms" will likely lead to flooding of much of the layout and salt water intrusion which will affect the grass.   It could happen sooner, threatening the so called cradle of golf.   On the one hand, I mourn the potential demise of St. Andrews and many other coastal courses impacted by climate change.  On the other, let's face it, golf is a rich man's sport and the rich, either by ignoring climate change or actively encouraging it are fueling the fire.   I won't be around for the denouement, but it saddens me to think on it.

Slow motion Apocalypse

         Kim Stanley Robinson is a sci-fi writer I have been reading of late.  He has recently specialized in stories about human adaptation to the slow motion climate disaster the human race is inflicting upon itself.   In one scenario, the collapse of all the ice shelves in Antarctica and the subsequent rush of its glaciers to the sea in the middle of the current century has raised the sea level by several feet.   This has caused the inundation of the east coast and the permanent flooding of Manhattan.  Robinson's books explore the changing relations of people to the environment and how it continues to play out.

       In a recent podcast with Ezra Klein,  Robinson makes the point we are in the midst of a disaster most of us cannot grasp.   Unlike a hurricane or tornado which occurs in  a time period we are used to, the ongoing climate disaster is hard to relate to.   He takes comfort in his belief that humanity will be able to adapt to changing conditions in the long run.  In the short term, billions will suffer from our continuing rejection of efforts to slow down the freight train of disaster heading towards us.  It does make for great science fiction, however!

Childbirth by children

       It's coming to a Republican controlled state near you.   Sometime soon, a child rape victim, perhaps as young as the 10 year old who fled Ohio to get abortion care in Indiana, will be forced by the state to bear her rapist's child.  Beyond this, she will probably be forced by economic and political  circumstances to give the baby up for adoption.   Welcome to an even more horrific real life version of The Handmaid's Tale. 

      Despite the efforts of right wing media outlets to discredit the story, which has been confirmed by both the rapist and the OB/GYN who performed the abortion, the horror of story has added fuel to the ongoing public outcry over the Supreme Court's evisceration of Roe vs. Wade.   By a wide margin, Americans wanted Roe upheld.  A tiny minority, working steadfastly for almost 50 years, has abrogated a right most of us have taken for granted.   As I have said before, the dog has finally caught the car, but it turns out it was a chihuahua and it just caught an 18 wheeler.

Loud and clear

       The latest public hearing of the House Select Committee investigating the events of January 6, 2021 pretty much removed any doubt the failed former president called on protestors to march on the Capitol, not in a spontaneous expression of doubt about the election, but in a planned out effort to overturn Joe Biden's election.

      Although he was surrounded in many cases by crazy conspiracy mongers, tRump, in the words of Liz Cheney, was a 76 year old man, not an impressionable child and should be held responsible for his actions which included the intimidation of Congress to prevent it from doing its constitutional duty.  The actions of the mob resulted in  several deaths and many injuries among the Capitol police force which was overwhelmed by the sheer number of attackers.

     The evidence of tRump's guilt by a preponderance of evidence is self evident.  The Committee will no doubt make a criminal referral to the DOJ when the hearings are done.  The ball will then be in Merrick Garland's court.

Summer weather

        For the most part, the weather in this area remains a little cooler and drier than normal.   Short periods of warmer weather are followed by cooler, drier days and nights.  For the average person this type of weather is perfect for a wide range of activities.  For farmers, not so much.   Most crops make their fastest growth during the long days and short nights of June and July.  Temperatures in the 80s and higher are necessary for many crops to mature.  By the time August rolls around, days are getting shorter and a few days of hot weather can't make up for earlier cool weather.   Vegetable crops are especially vulnerable to this kind of temperature regime.  Succession plantings bunch up and early seedings held back in cool, dry conditions mature at the same time as later plantings.   It's a no win situation, and with a short growing season, there is little time available to recover.

Rockets and Feathers

       It has been a commonplace observation over many years.  Whenever there is a shortage or supply chain problem with crude oil, prices rise immediately.   the problem is eventually fixed, but despite a rapid fall in crude prices, it takes weeks or months for the price at the pump to reflect the new reality.  I never realized there is a term for this situation.  "Rockets and Feathers" is the term used by economists.  The wholesale price of gasoline is down more than 80 cents/gallon while the retail has dropped by about 40 cents.

      Most of us have heard the excuse the retail station has expensive gas in their underground tanks and they have to sell it before they can buy cheaper fuel and lower prices at the pump.   This is surely what happens.  However, data over many years indicates there is a deliberate holdup by individual gas stations and chains of pricing.   This goes on until competition from stations down the road force prices lower.   The same is true of pricing in other industries, but it is most easily observable in a product many of us use every day and track pricing up and down.

Whither Fuel Prices

     I filled my car's fuel tank yesterday and paid $4.60/gallon.  That's about .45-.50/gallon less than the high point for prices a few weeks back.  Of course, there are dozens of articles and man in the street pieces by the media praising Joe Biden and Democrats for bringing prices down...LOL!

     Seriously, Biden had nothing to do with either the run up of fuel prices or their inevitable fall, but  unlike the quarterback who is lionized while winning but pilloried for losing, the president is seemingly responsible for every economic stumble, but gets little or no credit when things improve.  I guess nothing sells like bad news.

     Assuming the Ukraine war grinds on its present path and demand for gas costing more than $4.00 at the pump continues to fall, then prices at the pump will continue to moderate.  However, the days of $2.00 gas are probably gone forever.   

Recessionary Blues

       With the Federal Reserve set to raise interest rates another .75 percentage point at its next meeting, it is a fair question as for the need to steal the punch bowl from the party, especially as the bowl is practically empty.

      The price of gasoline is driving the decision at this point.  Gas is hovering around $5.00/gallon in many areas of the country and most people are feeling aggrieved they can't drive their gas guzzling SUVs without seeing triple digit totals when they fill up.  In previous gas shocks, many drivers would trade in and get smaller, more fuel efficient cars.  Thanks to supply issues with the computer chips which run today's cars and the public distrust of electric vehicles, there doesn't seem to be alternatives to the 20 MPG standbys. 

     Because of the public's resounding unease about petroleum pricing, it seems the Fed will drive us into a recession.   This doesn't need to happen, since most economic indicators point to a cooling off of the economy anyway.  The only thing still pushing the high interest narrative is the unemployment rate which is hovering around 3.6%.   Millions will be thrown out of work in a recession.  It doesn't need to happen, but as usual, a bunch of old white men are calling the tune once again.

We are all libertarians, until

        Ask an American to define who the prototypical citizen should most resemble and I think most of us would think of someone like George Bailey, the fictional character in Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life".  Fighting for the little guy no matter the cost to himself, Bailey epitomizes the virtues most of us wish we could have.  Unfortunately, if asked to put their reputations and personal fortunes on the line for someone outside our immediate family most of us would fail the Bailey test.

     Similarly, many of our fellow citizens consider themselves libertarians.  They long for a world where everyone has the same chance to succeed or fail.   Of course, close to 99% of these Ayn Rand disciples are young or middle aged white men who in the 100 meter dash of life are starting 50 meters ahead of most everyone else.

     The Supreme Court majority seems to want all of us to live the libertarian dream except for those who are non-white, female or younger than 21.   They will use government power to enforce their vision and woe to those who believe in a common cause.   It's none for all and all for the 1%.   It's going to be a long hard winter in Pottersville.

A 4th to Remember

       If you believe as so many do the key to survival in our uncertain times is a loaded gun, yesterday was your kind of day.   While not much is known about the 22 year old being held for a mass shooting in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park which left 6 dead and dozens injured.  It seems the shooter set himself up on a rooftop overlooking a July 4 parade and proceeded to spray the area with high powered bullets.

     The shooter will be brought to justice.  But what about the gun industry and the politicians and judges who enabled this horror.  The stories of the victims will be told, the community will clean up the site and business will continue as usual.  Until those who facilitate the twisted dreams of these mass killers are sanctioned, the carnage will continue.  If your state and federal representatives have not come up with a policy of gun control which will actually make a difference they do not deserve your support.  Banning all assault weapons is a starting point, but it is not enough.

We didn't start the fire...but

      Reading about or listening to the talking heads on July 4 is a dizzying spectacle.  From the latest on January 6 to fighting in Ukraine to another example of police brutality, the news is like the iconic Billy Joel song on steroids.   

     Most of us will celebrate the July 4th holiday by attending local parades, consuming way too many barbeque offerings and finishing the day with fireworks.   There is certainly nothing wrong with such traditional ways to mark another year of independence.   Hopefully we will all pause for a few minutes and think about the reasons for the commemoration of Thomas Jefferson's magnum opus.  Let's all try to celebrate what binds us together rather than what divides us.

July 4 Hypocrites

      Monday will bring another July 4 celebration to a nation sorely divided.   Not since the Civil War has the partisan divide been so stark.   The investigation of the January 6 coup attempt was opposed not only by the tRumpists who participated in the violence, but also by most institutional Republicans who decided party over country was the way to go.

     Perhaps no institution mirrors the dysfunction so much as the Supreme Court.   From female body autonomy to fighting against climate change, the Court represents the yearning of a small minority of the country for the halcyon days of the patriarchy, when blacks knew their place, brown people picked vegetables and women and young people kept quiet.

     Think about what kind of country you want on Monday.  The scales hang in the balance and it could go either way.