Saving us from ourselves

         The Secretary of State of Maine has removed tRump from the ballot in that state's Republican primary, pending a decision by the Supreme Court on the merits of the case.   Arguing Section 3 of the 14th amendment bars an insurrectionist from running for president seems a lot like wondering how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.  You can always get the answer you are looking for.

        Without a doubt, the conservative majority on the Court will get to the holding that enables Cheeto Jesus to run on all state ballots.   That a different Court would find the opposite to be true is self evident.  The history of the court is littered with bad faith decisions which have arguably led to worse outcomes than a second tRump presidency.   Regardless of anything the court does, lovers of democracy should ignore the courtroom drama and work to defeat tRump at the ballot box by such a margin he will be consigned to history's dustbin.

What comes next

          The death toll has exceeded 20,000 Palestinians since the Israeli war on Gaza began in the wake of the horrific Hamas attack which caused over 1,000 deaths.   What happens next?   

         The IDF has managed to create a new generation of haters of Israel.  The government has squandered most if not all of the international sympathy the Hamas attack generated.   It's stated goal of destroying Hamas is manifestly impossible to achieve.  A humanitarian catastrophe is happening as I write this and Netenyahu continues what is looking more and more like ethnic cleansing as he desperately clings to power.  This cannot end well...

The clown car loses an occupant

      It's certainly looks like Meatball Ron's presidential aspiration in 2024 will be history after the Iowa caucuses in January.

       According to some accounts, DeSantis' campaign has spent more on private jet travel for the candidate than it did on television ads.  After all, nothing says insurgent campaign more than the candidate getting off a private jet plane.   

     The media deserves a dose of contempt for running endless, breathless stories about how DeSantis was going to take down tRump.   That he was tRump without the baggage.   Now they are moving on to Nikki Haley and how she is the unlikely hero who has a chance to take down the frontrunner.   Meanwhile, she is running for the nomination of a misogynistic, racist party, so, good luck with that.   In reality, she is running for VP on the Cheeto Jesus ticket, so any criticism of the Dear Leader will be muted.

     The other occupants of the clown car, Chris Christie and Vivek Ramaswamy are dead men walking.  Both will soon pull the plug, leaving Haley as the only alternative to catastrophe.  That doesn't leave me with a warm, fuzzy feeling.

That is the question

       Should Clarence Thomas recuse himself from any cases involving his wife and or the insurrection of January 6th, 2021?  Yes, of course he would says anyone who has, Rip van Winkle like, been out of touch with American politics for the last 30 years.  Or anyone with a tiny sliver of integrity.  Unfortunately, most of the electorate has not had the luxury of isolation and many do not have even a tiny sliver of integrity, so, Hell no is probably Thomas' reply.  No Hamlet he!

A few Christmas thoughts

        Christmas is a difficult holiday for me in several ways.  The rational part of my adult brain says there is no way we should be celebrating the birth of an out of wedlock child as the incarnation of god on earth.  The elementary school part of the same brain finds this an irresistible story which I desperately want to be true.  So, I sing the carols and participate in the hoopla surrounding Christmas, but always with the caveat that the holiday we "christians" celebrate originates as the joyful welcome of the lengthening of days in the northern hemisphere.  So, let's sing another yuletide carol and bring on the wassail bowl.  A Merry Christmas to all!

time to put on the curmudgeon hat

        The Divine Mrs. M. and I escort a couple of our grandchildren to their school which is across the street from our house.  Today was "pajama day" at school, so the kids came decked out in their best seasonal sleepwear.  Today's schedule includes minimal learning and a  holiday movie.

      I contrasted this in my mind with my own experience as a 4th grader in 1960 or 61.  Christmas was not nearly the deal it is today, especially at St. John the Evangelist school.   Sister Redempta had no use for the commercial aspect of the holiday and she certainly did not let it interrupt the learning process.  We had an assembly and sang a few Christmas carols, but that was the extent of our holiday celebration.  

     Every generation is doomed to this sort of introspection on various aspects of growing up in America.  Our own children probably will pontificate on the excesses of the next generation when they reach their 70's.   Dog only knows what their grandchildren will be doing to celebrate Christmas.

The first domino?

       The Colorado Supreme court has ruled an insurrectionist by the name of Donald tRump is ineligible to appear on the primary ballot in that state due to Section 3 of the 14th amendment.   This clause forbids anyone who attempts the overthrow of a legitimately elected US government from running for any office in the nation, including president.

     Until now, most pundits have pooh poohed the idea of using a little known section of the Constitution originally meant to prevent anyone who supported treason in defense of slavery from holding any office in the US after the Civil War to prevent tRump from running.  Their argument was he has not been convicted of a crime.  As the lawyers who represented the plaintiffs in the case argued,  conviction is irrelevant.  The vast majority of confederate soldiers were never tried, but their support of insurrection disqualified them.  They showed abundant evidence tRump planned, led and exhorted his followers to interfere with the orderly transfer of power to the winner of a legitimate election.

      It will be interesting if courts in other swing states agree with Colorado.

The rights of Kings

        In the opinion section of today's NYT, we are told by Michelle Goldberg our hair should be on fire at the prospect of another tRump presidency.  Meanwhile, in another essay, Matthew Schmitz, an avowed conservative tells us the disgraced, indicted former president is not an authoritarian.  He is merely a pragmatic centrist who seeks consensus.

       My brain is virtually exploding at the disingenuousness of Schmitz' premise.   The only thing which prevented Orange Julius from going full on dictator was the majority of his cabinet and advisors still at least professed to believe in small d democracy.  They thwarted tRump's worst power plays.  The next time around, Cheeto Jesus will stock the executive branch with enablers who will cater to his every whim.

      So, yes, our hair should be on fire and we should be doing everything in our power to elect Biden and as many Democrats as possible.   

The nostalgia high

       Personally, if I never see another cassette or VHS tape again it won't bother me.   However, I hear there is a movement afoot to revive both formats.  Anyone who had a cassette tape unwind in a player or had  VHS tape break knows what I'm talking about..

     The same goes for more historical events.  Some idiots are protesting the removal of a confederate monument from Arlington National Cemetary.  Celebrating treason in defense of slavery has become a cottage industry on the right.   Likewise, there is a mini groundswell of support for rehabilitating ''Tricky Dick" Nixon's reputation.  No comments necessary on that score.

    Why do humans pine for obsolete technology and obnoxious historical eras and personalities?  I guess I better start collecting tRump campaign buttons...

An imperfect world

       We live in an imperfect world .  The trouble is many believe a perfect world is possible and in so doing, they reject the world as it is, adopting an ideology they would normally find offensive.  That is the reason many on the extreme left have migrated to the political right wing.  They are searching and the right offers the rosy view of a past that never was. 

       This is the thesis of Michelle Goldberg's column in the NYT today.   I agree with part of her take on the subject, but I think she is missing part of the allure the right exerts on people.  In a word, it's money that powers the right wing today, whether in politics or lifestyle.   Why be a voice, crying in the wilderness, when you can have a lifestyle off the rich and famous.   All you have to do is embrace the theology of 1950's era nostalgia and the cash spigot will open.

Mr. Bad Example

      The title for this blog post is the eponymous song by Warren Zevon.   He chronicled the exploits of a man who consistently made bad choices when it came to good and evil, starting out as a thieving alter boy and going downhill from there.

     Among nation states, America was Mr. Bad Example following 9/11.  After the fall of the Twin Towers we had all the good will in the world.  Instead of leading the world in a Christian direction, we succumbed to an old testament desire for revenge for over 3 thousand American lives.  It led to 20 years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq and hundreds of thousands of lost lives.

     Israel seems set in following our bad example.   It is now in the process of squandering all the good will the horrific attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 had generated.   By indiscriminately targeting civilians in Gaza and killing thousands, Israel is well on its way to becoming a pariah state.   The leaders need to declare victory and start the process of rebuilding Gaza before a humanitarian disaster further besmirches Israel's reputation.

Supreme suspense

        It looks like the Supreme Court will hear arguments regarding presidential immunity in the coming weeks.   Special Prosecutor Jack Smith short circuited the appeals process tRump and his lawyers were counting on to delay his trial in DC until after the election.  

      The crux of tRump's case is the assertion that Presidents, like Kings in the 14th century could not be held liable for crimes committed during their reign.   A cursory acquaintance with the Constitution would tell you the Founders would have thought it beyond belief for someone to assert royal privilege in such a case.   The twice impeached, disgraced former president needs to be held accountable for fomenting the plot to overturn the 2020 election and it must be done in a timely manner.   Aside from Alito and Thomas, I'm reasonably certain the Supremes will vote for the rule of law as opposed to the Divine right of Kings.

Gloomy Doom

      Democrats are rattled and dismayed by recent polls showing Cheeto Jesus beating Joe Biden in a head to head matchup in 2024.   Unfortunately, they have good reasons to be nervous.  The biggest single issue voters tell pollsters they are concerned about is the economy.   People just don't believe the economic statistics generated by the government and private economists saying things are better today than they were at the height of the tRump administration

    Part of people's dissatisfaction is Democrats showed people the government could make people's lives better with program's like the Child Care tax credit.   This program had an immediate good effect on parents' lives.  Money may not solve every problem, but relieving parents of the expense of day care solved a lot of them.   The strategic error was to not make the program permanent (thank you, Joe Manchin).   It is like Lucy and the football.  Instead of giving us the message that government can help people live better, the good program was snatched away just as it was starting to make a difference.  

    There is no way Republicans will cooperate with Democrats to enact more social safety net legislation.  Biden will have to use executive orders to help people between now and next November or we are in for the ultimate fiasco of another tRump interregnum.

our very own facts

       Recent polling on the economy shows a majority of Americans have a poor opinion of the economy at this point in the Biden administration's first term.  More than 70% of Republicans feel the economy is bad, despite the fact most of them view their own situation as good.  

     As Paul Krugman points out in today's NYT, you can show people the actual fall of inflation and the continued strength of the job market and you will be called an elitist snob who knows nothing about the lives of ordinary folks.  Studies have shown it takes two years of non inflationary growth before many  people feel comfortable with the economic situation.  In the case of Fox news viewers it may take a generation of good news to change their minds.   The relentless narrative at Rupert Murdoch's shop is any bad news is automatically Democrats' fault.  They are informing an entire generation of low information citizens to attribute any problem to the Dems.  As Rudy Giuliani has said, We have theories, we just don't have the evidence.

5

The day the sitcom died

        Norman Lear, the creator of Archie Bunker and a host of other sitcom staples of the 1970's died yesterday at 101.   He hung on long enough to outlive Henry Kissinger, so good on him.  It's hard to say which of them had a greater impact on American history.   Kissinger was ubiquitous in the halls of power in the 70's while Lear was a fixture in the country's living rooms.  Most of us invited Archie and Edith into our homes every week and came away with a mirror eye view of our national identity.

      Virtually everyone knows one or more of the archetypes Lear created.   The prototypical bigot, the newly minted feminist, the angry young man and a host of other middle Americans struggling  for recognition each week on our televisions came from the mind of man who embodied many of their traits.  His father called him the laziest white kid he had ever seen.  

      Lear's influence on popular culture continued long after his most famous shows went into syndication.  Series like the Sopranos show that even criminals have a life outside their pursuit of ill gotten gains.  Even Ted Lasso with its stereotypes poking fun at each other is a spiritual descendant of Lear's work.

    In later years, Lear became a social activist who invested in democracy, unlike Kissinger who did his best to subvert it.  On balance, Norman Lear lived a life far closer to the American ideal and I honor him for his example.

An El Nino winter

       Depending on which meteorologist you listen to, it will either be dry and cold or wet and warm this winter in the North Country of New York.  Our little corner of the world is affected in different ways than much of the rest of the country.  The melting glaciers in Greenland are chilling the waters north of us which in turn counteracts the effects of global warming.  So, while winters are generally getting warmer, it's not as drastic a change as in many other areas.   No matter what they say, the snow shovels and snow blower will see action before too long.

Will they even care

       With the release of a new book, Liz Cheney has re-emerged as a rallying point in  the anti-tRump movement which is gaining ground across the country as the seeming inevitability of his march to the Republican presidential nomination becomes apparent.  Cheney and others have repeatedly pointed to Cheeto Jesus' authoritarian tendencies as the prelude to a dictatorship for life. I wonder how many people would care if it happened.

       Millions of  Germans and Italians did not demonstrate in the streets during the rise of Hitler and Mussolini.  Many millions welcomed the fascist dictators as harbingers of stability.  In more recent times, Hungarians are not agitating to topple Victor Orban.  

      To the many millions of Americans whose sole source of news is right wing media, a dictatorship which includes the persecution of immigrants, brown and black skinned people, women and the younger generation is an unalloyed good.  As long as the 2nd amendment is observed, the rest of the Constitution is superfluous.   I'm betting if tRump called for his election as president for life, he would lose a handful of votes, but possibly gain a few of the authoritarian curious.  So much for the American experiment with democracy.    

When the news isn't news

       The latest government statistics show inflation is nearing the 2%/year target of the Federal Reserve.   After all the sturm and drang the media subjected us to since inflation became a thing in 2022 you would think they would be singing glad hosannas.  Instead, crickets.  Or the story is buried on some inside page or mentioned in passing.   It seems the only thing the media really cares about is bad news, especially if it relates to a Democratic administration. 

Henry Kissinger is dead

      As one pundit put it, Henry Kissinger's death may be the only redeeming event in 2023.   A monster who was responsible for the deaths of millions,  directly or indirectly.   From Laos and Cambodia to East Timor, Bangladesh and Chile, Kissinger's policies of propping up authoritarian dictators who would bow to the American Empire led to incalculable suffering around the world.

     Detente with the Soviet Union, arms reduction and the opening with China were relatively bloodless achievements on his watch, but hardly compare with the death and destruction he caused or facilitated.  Ironically, Kissinger's family got out  of Germany just before Hitler began the Holocaust.  You would think such an experience would cause him to be cautious in wielding power over the defenseless.  You would also be wrong.

      History will not be kind to Henry Kissinger.

The political silly season

       We are still 11 months away from election day.   The primaries have not yet started.  There is a need to fill news outlets and cable news with content.  Time to drag the fringes of the American political scene to center stage and give them their 15 minutes of fame.   

      Today was "No Labels" turn in the spotlight.  Ever since Joe Lieberman and a couple of Republican operatives dreamed up this supposedly non-partisan, non political party, it has been seen as a haven and a grift for those who are not welcome in the two major parties.  It has about $70 million on hand.  This may seem like a lot, but even with deep pocketed donors, the salaries and bonuses for hangers on will suck up most of the money before it can be used to actually do any political damage.   The worry is No Labels will gain ballot access in enough states and endorse a ticket that will siphon votes away from Biden and throw the election to tRump.   Personally, aside from the votes of Harlan Crow and a few other donors, i doubt  a No Labels ticket will draw enough votes to do anything except line the pockets of its principals.s

Water and the American way of life

      The story of the Aral sea in the former Soviet province of Uzbekistan should be a wakeup call for everyone.  By diverting most of the rivers which fed the fresh water lake which was 15% larger than lake Michigan, Soviet planners unwittingly caused the demise of the lake and with it the ecosystem it anchored.   Now a vast desert with a few increasingly saline lakes left behind, it is a tourist draw for those interested in seeing an ecological disaster.

     Halfway across the world, in Arizona, a similar disaster may be playing out as foreign and domestic companies are pumping the underground aquifer dry while the state's other major source of water, the Colorado River, also dries up.  

     You may ask what these far flung disaster stories have to do with those of us  in the water rich Northeastern US?   Thirsty people will do desperate things to secure water supplies.   There is already talk of transcontinental pipelines stretching from the Great lakes to the arid west.   As water supplies dwindle, the talk will become more serious.  People will not give up the American way of life without a life and death struggle.   

American obsessions

       A quick scan of the my usual blogs and newsfeeds this morning reveals America's various obsessions, namely and not necessarily in order to be, aging in America, wealth disparity and Israel's war with Hamas.  Nothing today about climate change or tRump, the two most existential threats to the nation's continuation as a liberal democracy.  No, what caught my eye was a plug for the "Golden Bachelor", wherein a 72 year old age defying geezer choses the love of the rest of his life from a bevy of spray tanned, botox toned boomer women who make jokes about replaced knees and the perils of midnight bathroom runs.  Meanwhile, the Washington Post editorial board makes the case that young, liberal women need to get over themselves and marry politically conservative men in order to satisfy some longing for an idealized country by the EB at the Post.  Just a small sample about what some of us are obsessing about.

Thanksgiving reduux

        Thanksgiving has meant many things to me over the years.   As a school child in the 1950s, I happily swallowed the Pilgrim fantasy of hanging out with the native americans who would shortly be dispossessed of their lands by said Pilgrims.

      Moving on to the late 60s and 70s, the holiday seemed to serve as a cynical marketing ploy to bridge the gap between Halloween and Christmas.  It still serves that purpose today.  I think many of us would like to derive some spiritual benefit from Thanksgiving, myself included.  As we pause from the hectic work of preparing the feast and look forward to seeing family and friends around the table (even a crazy uncle or two) we should remember to actually give thanks for the bounty most of us have access to.  

      The flip side of course is that many do not have access to abundant healthy foods.   What can be done for them?  Something to ponder as dessert is served.

indoor Agriculture

        Ever since the first farmer planted seeds and endured the weather dependent waiting period before harvest, there have been dreams of better ways of farming.  Indoor agriculture with its promise of foolproof weather control and an ability to eliminate all but a benign input from Mother nature has been the holy grail of farmers for thousands of years.

      It was with some trepidation that I read a story in Louisville Public Media via the blog Lawyers, Guns and Money.  The article traced the hype, boom and bust of Appharvest a startup greenhouse which promised well paying jobs to people displaced by the demise of the coal industry.   The company raised over $700 million from investors who should have questioned the bona fides of the 32 year old CEO with no agricultural experience.

    I know a little about greenhouse growing and its challenges.  The most successful operations in the world are located in the Netherlands and Canada.  Both are located hundreds of miles north of Kentucky, where summertime temperatures routinely climb into the mid 90s.  This makes ventilation to lower temperatures a nightmare if you are using technology developed in Northern Europe where summertime temperatures are much lower.   I am fairly certain this maladaptation of ventilation and growing methods doomed the venture from the start.  

    Labor was also an issue.   The LPM article treats the worker complaints regarding working conditions sympathetically.   The bottom line in Kentucky and most other areas of the US is native labor is unlikely to thrive under the conditions and culture which most ag businesses employ.   The ignorance of management regarding working conditions in the greenhouses and its gross violations of pledges it made to workers eventually led the company to use hundreds of hispanic workers in an effort to boost productivity.

     The entire operation was sold to new owners who supposedly know something about greenhouse production.  Whether they can correct the technology is, I think, an open question.   Until climate change wreaks havoc on outdoor agriculture, companies like Appharvest will remain niche operations which will be hard pressed to compete with outdoor production of fruits and vegetables.

Rosalyn, we hardly knew ye

      I am struck by the outpouring of grief for and praise of Rosalyn Carter, who passed away after a brief time in hospice care.  She was 96.   She is being characterized by many as an equal partner with her husband, Jimmy Carter, before, during and after his tumultuous presidency.      

     The Carters were possibly the first couple to allow for the wife of the president to wield power in her husband's name.   George H W Bush and Barbara and Bill and Hilary Clinton took this model and broadened the First Lady's executive power.  Rosalyn was the original model.   I'm not saying it is good or bad, but perhaps vetting potential First Ladies should be something we may all be interested in doing.

Don't know much about AI

           Is Skynet coming for you in Terminator scenario, or will AI solve all the problem mankind  is too stupid, greedy or vicious to tackle.   That seems to me to be at the heart of the departure of Sam Altman from Open AI, the startup he founded with another expert in artificial intelligence.   The board at the company seems to think Altman treats the whole concept too cavalierly.  Obviously, Microsoft does not seem to feel the same way as it immediately hired Altman to lead a new team of Ai scientists to the promised land.

          I don't know much about artificial intelligence, except I think it's more hype than reality at this point.   However, deep pocketed tech giants like Microsoft and Google are betting billions of dollars on the promise of AI and with their track records off achievements, I wouldn't bet against them.

      That leads to the question of what a world augmented or ruled by AI would look like.  I would prefer a world much like the Jetsons with flying cars and intelligent domestic robots.  What we'll probably get is closer to James Cameron's vision of robots run amuck.  Just a Monday morning thought...

Partisan reality

        I'm probably enough of a liberal to qualify as vermin by tRump's definition.   However, besides watching way too much MSNBC in my daughter's estimation, I also subscribe to the NYT and WaPo as well as reading several center-left blogs on a daily basis.  So, I consider myself an open minded person as opposed to the average Fox news viewer who eschews any other news source except more right wing outlets.

        The skewed views on the economy is a case in point.   Inflation is down, wages are up, employment is at a 50 year high and consumer spending continues to power the economy, yet a majority of Americans have a dismal opinion on said economy.   Partisan affiliation has much to do with it and GOP partisans are far more likely than Dems to blame the Biden administration for their perceived woes by up to a 30% margin.  Despite their expressed dismay, these same Republican consumers continue to spend like drunken sailors which keeps the economy humming.  Fox news says the economy is terrible, ergo to the average viewer it must be so.   Some people need to get out more.

      

time for a timeout

        Referring to your political opponents as "vermin" and threatening to commit them to mental institutions if elected to the presidency next year would seem to be ample evidence of malign intent.  One of the judges presiding over tRump's numerous trials should take the logical step of revoking his bail and sending him to prison for a cooling off period.

      Virtually no one who has observed the disgraced former president (aside from the MAGA horde) would argue his increasingly unhinged campaign rhetoric will not lead to violence against his enemies in the short term.   In his mind, anyone seeking to hold him accountable for his numerous crimes is an enemy needing extermination.   It is only a matter of time before someone with an AR-15 acts on tRump's implication of someone as a persecutor of the ex-president and takes the law into their hands.  Commission to jail, or better yet a psychiatric institution would help calm the body politic.

Close Encounters of any kind

      Ross Douthat in today's NYT trumpets the conversion of a secular Islamic atheist to Christianity.  He discounts her reasoning that led to her conversion which is simply that she was looking for a worldview she was not finding in atheism, not that she found Christianity to be the one, true religion.

     In the wake of my mother's and sister-in-law's recent deaths, I have had occasion to examine my own relationship to the Catholicism of my youth.  I would love to be able to believe in choirs of angels escorting my loved ones to an eternity of bliss in an otherworldly Heaven.  Unfortunately, the Catholic church has squandered any moral authority it may once have wielded in my life and the evangelical brand of christianity favored by many with its emphasis on a personal relationship with the divine does not appeal to me.  

     Douthat's reasoning is mankind needs the comfort and civilization building power of organized religion, preferably his brand of conservative Catholicism.  As far as I can see his vision is the same as the first cave dweller who convinced his fellows that lightning was the hand of god.   Thank Dog, most of us are over that brand of snake oil.

The new Know Nothings

        Anti-immigrant hysteria is a staple of American history.  Except for brief interludes, Americans have railed against immigrants since the early years of the republic.  Even while celebrating immigrants as does the Statue of Liberty, most people would prefer the "huddled masses" look like white, northern Europeans.   

     Now, tRump and his minions are floating plans for massive "camps" where immigrants will be concentrated before expulsion from the country.  The capacity of these concentration camps is purportedly in the millions.   The disgraced, indicted former president has ratcheted up his rhetoric to rile up his base with predictable results.

     The truth is, immigrants are more law abiding than native born Americans, pay taxes and start businesses at higher rates than citizens.  If you think about it, immigrants in general have made huge sacrifices to come here and are willing to work harder to make their dreams of a better life come true.  The truth is, we need these immigrants to make up the labor shortage caused by a falling birth rate.   Stephen Miller, tRump's latter day Goebbels, would have us believe employers will willingly raise wages to attract increasingly scarce workers in the absence of immigrants.  Good luck with that.

     tRump and his enablers want to make this country into a pale imitation of Nazi Germany in the 1930s instead of the vibrant multicultural democracy it can be.   We can choose either model next year.

Last call for gardening

     It was 23 degrees this morning as the sun came up in the north country this morning.   That means game over in the garden except for the hardiest vegetables.  The kale will be fine, as will be the beets and carrots.  The swiss chard is a frozen rictus of itself and the last turnips will need a shower and some temps in the 40s to thaw out.  I harvested the last of the lettuces yesterday for a celebration of birthdays.  The fall salad included fennel, peppers, golden beets, carrots and turnips as well as the aforementioned lettuce.  If that was the last hurrah for the garden, it went out on a high note.

Love the veterans, hate the wars

       Veterans' Day and Memorial Day are two holidays I have a hard time wrapping my head around.  I respect the brave men and women who served their countries in the many wars since the Armistice was signed in 1918.  I also hate the conflicts they were involved with.  In most cases these young women and men were sent to their deaths by the decisions of old white men who should have known better.  After all, hate is a lot easier to foment than understanding.   The war between Hamas and Israel is a perfect illustration of this point.

     The world is poised on the existential crisis of climate change and the need for cooperation has never been greater.  Instead we are creating more veterans of more senseless wars.  As the refrain goes, "When will they ever learn".

Weddings and Funerals

        After a brief stop at home following a remembrance gathering for my mother, the Divine Mrs. M and I will be making another road trip to Long Island to attend the funeral of her older sister.   That makes 2 weddings and 2 deaths in our extended families during the latter half of 2023.   As my sister remarked at Mom's remembrance, we are now the old folks and as evidenced by my sister-in-law's death on Saturday, we will be passing from this mortal coil in all too few years.

      I refuse to go on a rant about how ours and previous generations have screwed the environment and created an existential dread overtaking our descendants as they try to deal with the mess we have left to them.   There are solutions to every crisis if we will only work together to find them.

     The passing of older generations and the ascendance of youth has been going on since the our ancestors buried their parents with tools and decorations to accompany them on their journey to what they hoped would be better place than the short, brutish existence most of them had known.  We participate in the ceremonies associated with weddings and funerals to affirm our collective spirit.  To the newly married, I wish you a long and happy life.  To those recently deceased, may you rest in peace.   To the rest of us, may we carry on for as long as we are able.

A sorry week for Americans

       In the aftermath of a failed attempt to rid the House of the indicted serial liar, George Santos it's a good time to take stock of the country which has spawned a political party so craven it elected a christian nationalist to the most powerful position in Congress.  Mike Johnson, an election denier who is also against LGBTQ rights, marriage equality and women's health care, was elected, much as Dennis Hastert in an earlier era,  because he is without powerful enemies.  

     His unanimous selection is further evidence there are no moderates in the GOP at this point.   It has surrendered to the forces of intolerance and hatred.   Johnson's first bill would eviscerate the IRS' ability to audit rich tax cheats.   In return, the House would authorize $14 billion in aid for Israel.  Not a dime for Ukraine.   This is how the Trumpist Republican party rolls these days.   It pitches its appeal to a slice of the electorate which  holds the same hateful views as the Know Nothings and the Ku Klux Klan.  Without these foot soldiers, the GOP cannot carry out its program of destroying the social safety net and further empowering the 1% at the expense of the rest of us.

All the opionions

      Between a vacation in Italy and lack of inspiration, this is the first post on the blog since October 10.   I'm still lacking motivation to bloviate on policy issues such as the war between Israel and Hamas or the latest mendacities perpetrated by Republicans in the House, but I'll give it the old school try in coming days.  

Israel and Palestine redux

         Jews and Palestinians and their ancestors have been struggling for control of a small strip of land on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea for thousands of years.  One side or the other has held the upper hand, sometimes for centuries.   Christians have also participated in this tragedy via the Crusades and later through the British Empire's Palestinian mandate.

      Jewish Zionists have been dreaming of a homeland for the Jews since 1897.   In the waning years of the Ottoman Empire, Zionists began  settling within the historic boundaries of Israel.  This process culminated in 1948 with the formation of the present state in a reaction to the Holocaust.  The Palestinians in many cases were dispossessed by an influx of Jewish settlers.  Crammed into the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, generations of these refugees have seethed with resentment as the Israelis built a modern, prosperous state.  

      All the ingredients for the present conflict have been in place for more than 70 years.  Unless and until the two sides come to an understanding, the conflict will continue.  Oh, and did I mention Christian prophecies of the end times which feature a war starting in the Middle east?   Stay tuned...

Old, but not yet cold

        The passing of my mother last month, along with a lengthening list of infirmities i am in the process of accumulating has led to contemplations of mortality.   When you start thinking you may not be around when the Social Security trust fund is exhausted in the early 2030s, it is time to take stock.  Like many in the Boomer generation, music is one of the ways I have marked significant milestones.  Coming of age during the late 60s during the heyday of Dylan, the Beatles and the Stones, there were plenty of songs more or less apropo to my circumstances.   However, one singer/songwriter more than any other expressed the melancholy of aging in a way that appealed to my teenage and later, my adult sensibilities.

      Paul Simon is almost exactly 10 years older than me and has consistently explored the themes of aging in a youth oriented society.   From "A Hazy Shade of Winter" to "Old Friends" and finally to "Old", Simon is alternately stridently opposed to aging to coming to terms with it ("How terribly strange to be 70")  to finally playful in Old (" God is old, we're not old").  I guess it's not very original to say the term, old, is extremely relative.  Not sure where this is going, but it's meant to be a short meditation on the process of aging, not a depressing rant on a Monday morning.

Prices and public stupidity

         My daughter called her fuel oil company the other day and was quoted $4.09/gallon for a fill up of her tank in preparation for winter.   Millions of other Northeast homeowners will be getting similar bad news in coming months and many of them will hold Joe Biden and Democrats responsible for the increase.    

        As has been pointed out ad nauseum, neither political party can control the price of petroleum and many people would say high prices will lead to less use of oil and therefore less dependence on a key driver of climate change.  But each consumer only feels the pinch in their own budget and will want to hold someone accountable for their woes.  According to a recent gallup poll, voters trust the GOP more than Democrats when it comes to the economy.  

      Watching the antics of the Republican majority in the House, I think I would trust the inmates of the monkey house at the Bronx Zoo more than the members of Kevin McCarthy's party with my hard earned dollars.   However, driven by tribalism, Republican voters and a few independents will vote for virtually any idiot with an R in front of their name, ensuring continued chaos instead of problem solving.s 

Playing it straight

        The recent indictment of NJ senator Bob Menendez has had the inadvertent effect of shining a light on cable news generally and MSNBC specifically.   The latter network employs Menendez' daughter, Alicia, as a news anchor.   The fact is there are hundreds if not thousands of men and women who could do that job.  There is no reason for the network to feature the senator's daughter except for the implication her relationship provides access to a powerful political figure.

      Likewise, the network's hiring of former White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, is another deliberate move to imply Psaki's insider status will somehow generate good reporting on the Biden presidency.  Psaki is no more a journalist than Menendez and the network should make that clear.  Only by hiring truly independent men and women and allowing them to pursue the truth without fear or favor will cable news truly become a member of the fourth estate.

The boys of summer

        In one of the more useless gestures of my moderately long life, i watched most of the last game of the Yankees' season of futility.  As if to put  a final nail in the coffin, Aaron Boone played most of the team's youth movement in a 5-2 loss at the hands of the Kansas City Royals, a reliable punching bag that punched back and took the season ending series, two games to one.

      As a young fan in the 50s and 60s, I watched the end of the Mickey Mantle-Whitey Ford dynasty and the start of a decade and a half of mediocrity.   That ended in the late 70s with the Bronx Zoo teams led by Catfish Hunter and Thurman Munson.   After them there was another decade in the wilderness, followed by the Derek Jeter- Mariano Rivera dynasty.

     It has been 14 years since the team hoisted the World Series trophy and it's time to do it again, but I have serious doubts the Yankees will right the ship with an aging Gerrit Cole and Aaron Judge.  Without a solid supporting cast, it might be another 10 years of mediocre baseball in the Bronx.  Unlike the 20 something I was in the 70s, I don't know if I can wait patiently for baseball lightning to strike again.  

The party of, by, and for the rich

       According to IRS documents, more than 1,000 taxpayers who earned more than one million dollars per year failed to file tax returns for at least one year between 2017 and 2022.  Collectively, the 2,000 biggest tax cheats owe more than 900 million dollars in back taxes.   Meanwhile, the IRS disproportionately audits middle and working class Americans.  This is mostly because Republican Congresses in the past have denied the agency the resources it needs to match the legal resources available to upper class tax cheats. 

     Republicans claim the IRS is coming after the middle class.  What they don't tell you is they are the reason for the disparity and it is costing the government billions of dollars of lost revenue every year.  If we had a media which really cared about publishing inconvenient truths, more people would know the falsity of Republican claims on this and many other issues where they claim with no validity the party is for the working class.

What if nobody came

        Some random Republicans debated last night.  I watched about 5 minutes of it and saw an elderly looking Chris Christie pull out a one liner about tRump he must have painstakingly rehearsed for hours.  For the rest, they were invited by the scary Fox moderators to comment on the apparent hellscape they believe this country has become.  The candidates favored solution is to lock up lots of "those people" and arm as many citizens as possible so they can take justice into their hands.  I assume the other topic covered was how the candidates could lick tRump's shoes as publicly as possible.   It's hard to believe many people tuned into this farce.

It's the Republicans, stupid!

        As Democratic strategists melt down and the mainstream media bothsides the imminent government shutdown, there are a few voices suggesting that a tiny minority of GOP members of the House from safe, gerrymandered districts are responsible for the current impasse.   The NYT, WaPo and most of the media blame "Congress", implying that both parties are equally feckless.

       Some pundits claim the mythical ''average american'' knows who is responsible and will plan their vote in the upcoming election accordingly.  This is giving way to much credit to Mr. and/or Mrs. Average, most of whom in polls can't name their congressional representative or know who is the House Speaker.  However, a constant barrage of quotes from moderate Republicans and especially those who won in districts which voted for Joe Biden to the effect the crazies in their caucus are responsible for the looming shutdown will likely reach most voters.   Dems need to hammer home this message at every opportunity between now and the 2024 election.

Will October be the new September?

        We are in a stretch of Chamber of Commerce weather here in the north country of NY.   Lows in the upper 40's and highs in the upper 60s to low 70s for days on end.   After a cloudy, rainy summer this weather is nearly ideal.  The long range forecast features more of the same.   The late season vegetables are doing well, except for the spinach planting which is suffering in the shade most of the day.  Next year I'll plant late spinach in a sunnier area of the yard.

      I have a feeling the El Nino system controlling global weather will continue the present status well into October this year.   That would mean no frost before mid to late October.  Unfortunately, there won't be enough sunlight by that time to grow anything but grass.  

My Kev is heading for a reckoning

        Kevin McCarthy may go down in history as perhaps the least effective Speaker in US history, and that's probably the best he can hope for.  Worst case, he will be remembered as the catspaw of an authoritarian clown who dismantled this country's democracy.  He will forever be known by the sobriquet, "My Kev'', a casual reference by tRump to his number one toady.

      He is an incompetent toady to boot, judging by the crisis his promises to the extreme right wing of his caucus has generated.   He can't even get a spending bill to the floor, let alone debate it.  The nihilistic yahoos who hold the real power seem to think they can govern by temper tantrum and McCarthy is doing little to disabuse them.

     A government shutdown will do much harm to our economy an our reputation in the world as a sober nation.  The GOP and McCarthy will shoulder the lion's share of blame for the chaos which is the House of Representatives.  However, their voters must also share the blame for electing these clowns in the first place.  Allowing the party to come to this pass is a cooperative effort.

AI is coming for your job

     Bill Gates appeared on MSNBC last night to tell us all that artificial intelligence is going to make us all smarter and more productive!   In the short run, he may be right.  As computing power increases, it will take over some of the tedious tasks in the knowledge economy.   AI can already scan ponderous legal briefs and documents to find nuggets off information which might otherwise be missed.  So far, so good.  However, what happens when true AI, with an IQ many times higher than any lawyer is put in charge of the case?

     Make no mistake, when true artificial intelligence is available, it will rapidly replace humans in 99% of cases.  From Supreme Court judges to the people who clean hotel rooms, true AI is coming for your job.  It won't happen overnight, or maybe it will.  With an intelligence of Einstein squared, who among us can tell what will happen?   Bill Gates, of all people should tell us the truth about the coming revolution.  

Ginning up the rubes

       While I don't put myself in the same category as the average MAGA tRump supporter in some significant ways, in some ways I am a mirror image of these conspiracist loons.  The average tRump supporter listens to hours of Fox News every day.  I listen to hours of MSNBC.    There is a qualitative difference of course, but Rachel Maddow has often indulged in breathless conspiracy theories which have  subsequently been debunked.   Those of us who subscribe to papers like the NYT and Washington Post and read some of the less partisan blogs get a somewhat more nuanced view of current events, but listening to Rachel's latest rant about Republican perfidy can certainly be satisfying in a visceral way.  

     I hate the idea that after 72 years and a degree with a political science major, I'm no more resistant to conspiracy theories than a recent high school graduate, but here we are in 2023.   It's Donald tRump's world and I'm just living in it.

once and again

       Now comes a biography of Mittens, telling us about how the noble protagonist listened to many elected Republicans, especially in the Senate, mock the twice impeached, 4 times indicted disgraced former president behind his back while swooning on TV.  The ghost of JFK should add a chapter for Romney in a revised edition of Profiles in Courage.   

      Romney has become an accidental hero to those opposing tRump and his assault on American democracy.   Having been elected to the Senate from his home state of Utah, I think Mitt figured he would serve a term in relative obscurity while working on a conservative, help the rich, agenda.  tRump's first impeachment and his vote to convict put paid to that narrative.  Thrust into the spotlight by those in the party who agreed with him in private while supporting the criming of tRump in public, Romney remained and remains the conscience of his party when it comes to tRump.

Too old or not too old

       Nate Silver, who made his reputation in the world of sports prognostication, has moved on and decided to try political punditry.  Besides boosting Meatball Ron for the presidency, Silver has taken to criticizing the "Dem leaning media" for not running endless stories speculating on Joe Biden's age and how he should drop out of the race.  This morning he was echoed by David Ignatius on NPR.  Ignatius is a superannuated columnist for the Washington Post who should take his own advice and retire.  However, there seems to be no age limit for bloviating wankers like him.

      Personally, I don't know how Biden manages the demands of the presidency at 80 years of age.  He is the leader of his party and is probably still has the best shot at beating tRump in a 2024 rematch.  Biden has been the most consequential Democratic president in the last 50 years.  If he feels he is up to the task, far be it for me or asshats like Silver or Ignatius to gainsay him.

Stupidity

       According to data collected by major city police departments, crime has been declining since the early 1990's.  There was a slight uptick during the covid lockdown, but that has ebbed also.  Likewise, by every metric, the economy has improved over the last two years and inflation has fallen to withing the Federal Reserve's target.   Then, why do pluralities of my fellow Americans perceive crime as rampant and the economy as failing despite opining that their own local area is safe and they are doing just fine economically?

      Paul Krugman in today's NYT makes the polite excuse.  People have lives to live, children to raise, etc.   They depend for information on crime and the economy on unreliable sources who lie to them.  I say poppycock.   If you feel safe and empowered, why should you think people in other areas of the country don't feel the same?   Tuning into Fox News or youtube or Tik Tok is a choice.  So is believing the toxic stew of misinformation  these outlets serve up on a daily basis.  "Doing your own research" by listening to Joe Rogan is stupidity, plain and simple.   I'm guessing the conspiracy theories we are exposed to every day satisfy some craving of our lizard brain.   

Victims of the system

       Most of us went about our business yesterday as if nothing unusual happened 22 years ago on September 11.   The tragedy of 9/11 has faded into history, despite some people's best efforts to make the remembrance relevant.  Similarly, 22 years after Pearl Harbor was attacked, I was an earnest 6th grader still reeling from the shock of JFK's assassination.   WW2 was ancient history as far as I was concerned.  Similarly, elementary students today consider the events of 9/11 as something you remember without too much understanding  of the underlying causes of the tragedy.

    Although  both Pearl Harbor and 9/11 will live in infamy, history will continue and the significance of both events in the daily lives of Americans will recede in our collective rear view mirror.  In a sense, the nearly 3 thousand who lost their lives 22 years ago are victims as much as they will be remembered as heroes.   The historical forces which resulted in their deaths as well as the millions who died in the second world war will continue to shape our perceptions of these events.

Much is owed

       My mother died last Wednesday.   There, I said it.  This post is part remembrance, part obituary and partly a celebration of a life lived with purpose.

      Jean Alice Higgins was born after a shotgun wedding  in Brooklyn in 1930 as America came to grips with the great depression.  She was passed around and raised by various relatives until her mother married another man and was able to support her.   Mom rarely spoke of her hardscrabble early life, except to remember running errands for her mother and the occasional treats of penny candy she enjoyed.

      Mom graduated from the Brooklyn School of Homemaking in 1948  She was the Valedictorian of her class, although she was never enamored with many of the skills she was taught.  She much preferred to read novels as escape from her rough and tumble existence.  Her mother's extended family bought a couple of small parcels of land on Long Island and built a cottage where they spent summer vacations in the late 1940's.   Jean was a reluctant participant in these jaunts to the country, much preferring the hurly burly of city life.    She got a job at Macy's and spent summer weekends in Manorville.

     Mom picked beans at a local farm during her vacation and a chance meeting with one of Emil Monzeglio's sons, a Cornel graduate named Robert changed the trajectory of her life forever.  She married him in 1950 and remained tethered to Manorville til the end of her life.

      Her early life on my father's chicken farm resembled a dark version of "The Egg and I", a light hearted book chronicling a woman's life on a dilapidated farm.  A poor business plan and a generally depressed farm economy led to the farm's failure by the early 1960's and the growing family which by this time included three sons and a daughter wound up in a new home on land provided by my grandfather on his farm.

       Mom helped harvest various crops on the farm, especially strawberries for the farmstand established by my uncle.   She worked at the vegetable stand during the summer along with her mother.  The clientele included many Italian immigrant women who wanted to negotiate prices with these two Irish women.  Hilarity ensued!  My father parlayed his college degree into a teaching job at the local elementary school and we settled into a middle class lifestyle for a few years.

     Jean's life was upended when a long illness resulted in my father's death in 1972.  She had already started working as a clerk at a local sand and gravel company in the late 60's.  Again, she didn't talk about it very much, but she put up with the indignities heaped on women in the workforce at that time.  She had to fend off unwanted advances from men on the job at the very least.  Casual comments of a sexual nature were not uncommon at the time.

     Fortunately, Jean was able to get a civil service job with the county as a clerk-typist.   It was a job with good benefits that enabled her to keep the family going forward as her husband's illness spiraled downward.  Working full time and caring for her children consumed the next phase of her life.   It is fairly common now for women to work full time and raise children, but in that faraway time, the mark of middle class success was a stay at home mom who presided over a spotless house and 3 or more well scrubbed children.   So, in a way, Jean was a proto-feminist.   However, she longed for the cultural ideal of a man providing for the family.

     Having seen her children into adulthood, Jean continued to work as a senior clerk-typist until her retirement.   She married again to Rhinehart Christoffersen, but the union ended in bitterness and recrimination.   I think by this time, she had moved beyond the desire for a dominant male in her life and she was unwilling to submit to one at this stage.   After moving in and out  of a couple of apartments, she settled in a retirement community in of all places, Manorville.

     She threw herself into the life of her community, participating in the various celebrations throughout the year.   She also traveled with friends to Alaska and Ireland as well as trips with children and grandchildren.   Jean never lost her nostalgia for Brooklyn and was happy when one of the grands and his spouse actually moved into the borough.  

     Health issues made the last decade and a half a challenge.  A minor stroke 11 years ago left her with physical and cognitive impairments.  However, she soldiered on and made the best of what was an increasingly bad situation.   In quiet conversations with her children over the last several years she professed herself ready to move on to the next plane of existence.   Although raised Catholic, she always expressed a healthy skepticism of church dogma.  Also, being Irish, I don't think she expected the church approved afterlife to be that welcoming.

     The guiding star of her life was family.  Having been raised as unloved baggage by her own mother, she was determined to show what love she had to her own children.  It was hit and miss, but looking back, she got it right far more often than wrong.   Jean is survived by her 4 children and their spouses, 13 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.  She loved us dearly from this old guy to Cameron Vocaturo who has yet to see his first birthday and everyone between us.

      Jean Alice Higgins-Monzeglio- Christoffersen was not perfect, but she lived every day of her life with conviction.  Those who knew her will love and remember her for as long as we draw breath.  Rest in Peace, Mom.

School Days

       I passed the teachers' parking lot at Peru Central this morning and while not full (school starts on Thursday) many teachers were attending training sessions or preparing their classrooms for their students in anticipation of the first day of attendance.

      An article in the NYT this morning points to historically low attendance at schools across  the country.  According to stats compiled by various states, at least 10% of students qualify as chronically absent which means they were out of school  at least a quarter of the time.  Anecdotally, it doesn't seem our local schools have that much of a problem, at least at the elementary level.

     The article goes on to say the Covid shutdown is the probable cause for much of the attendance crisis which is attributable to anxiety on the part of the kids.  Personally, I think the premise is way overhyped.  

State of Labor

        As the patron saint of this blog, Jerry Shulman, always had the same answer when asked why he required his employees to work on Labor Day.  Aside from proving to local famers we were working for them 24/7, he claimed Labor Day meant we should honor the concept by working on the nation's collective day off.  HaHa.

       As unions finally exercise their muscle after 60 years of decline in the Labor movement it is worth asking what leaders should be asking their members to do in the third decade of the 21st century.   The rise of AI will increasingly reach into the workplace as management seeks to replace troublesome workers with robots who will work around the clock for no remuneration.  White collar workers, traditionally anti union will feel the pinch also.  Long before Skynet comes for us, many, if not most jobs will be performed by AI.   What is to be done?

    A lot of pundits say not to worry, new jobs will be created by the AI revolution.  However, if artificial intelligence can do all the old jobs, by definition it will surely be able to do all the new jobs better than humans.   Handled well, the transition to a no work world should lead to a golden age for humanity.  It is up to people like today's labor leaders to manage the transition and advocate for their members as the change accelerates.

Costs of living

       I tend not to take notice when stories of inflation, either up or down, appear in the media.  I am reliably informed of the situation regarding inflation by the bottom line of the family budget.   If we get to the end of the month without spending more than our income, inflation is not a problem.  However, official data does not take into account such expenses as family weddings, unexpected medical expenses or other unplanned events.   By those metrics, 2023 is shaping up to be far more inflationary than 2022 at Casa Monzeglio.  I'm not complaining, just making an observation.

The reckoning begins

        It looks like, in light of District Court Judge Beryl Howell's ruling yesterday, Rudy Giuliani will start facing consequences for his lies regarding the 2020 election.   In this case he was found liable for defaming election workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss and causing them to go into hiding because of death threats on social media.

       Giuliani said despicable things about Freeman and Moss, calling them "vote scammers" and comparing them to drug dealers.  Now there will be a trial to determine how much monetary damages Guiliani will have to pay, in addition to the $90,000 in legal fees he will have to pay to the plaintiffs.  

      While Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss are collateral damage left in the wake of tRump's coup plot, they have every right to see justice served.  Here's hoping everyone who suffered harm as a result of Donny Two Scoops and his band and their reckless disregard of the law is compensated for their suffering.

They need to do better

        In the wake of wildfires sweeping the planet, the start of what promises to be a wild hurricane season in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico and the fall of heat records all over the world, the GOP candidates for the presidential nomination are all singing from the hymnal of climate change denialism.  Vivek Ramaswamy went so far as to call climate change a hoax at the first debate.  Despite the fact more than 70% of Americans believe humans have caused climate change, presidential aspirants in the Republican party seem to feel they must play to the 28% of Americans who believe various conspiracy theories regarding climate change.  Or, possibly they are angling for campaign funds from various fossil fuel companies.

      If/ When the history of this era is written, fossil fuel extraction companies will be described as the villains of story.  However, the outsize political voice commanded by a tiny minority of global population here in the US will be a major component of the story.

Ginning up the rubes

       I have to admit the graphics showing the various legal actions facing tRump and his merry band of insurrectionists face during the coming year tickles my fancy.   However, what most cable news outlets and the MSM don't stress is the fact Donny Two Scoops and his legal team can file numerous motions to the trial judges which will slow down the timeline of the start of the trial itself.   I would be extremely surprised if any of the felony trials the Marmalade Menace is booked for start before the the summer of 2024.

Lies, liars and tRumpism

       On the weekend after his 4th indictment, the disgraced former guy claims he won the club championship at his Bedminster, NJ course, but that he shot a 67, presumably from the championship tees.  This, after he self reported his weight and height to be 6' 3" and 215 pounds.  

     On the very best day of his ignoble life, Donny Two Scoops could not have shot a 67 on a PGA championship course.  Also, his height and weight claims are unconnected with reality.  Even his most ardent supporters would probably agree the above claims are outright lies.  Yet a majority of Republicans believe him when he says the 2020 election was rigged against him.   As Paul Campos notes in the Lawyers, Guns and Money blog, Hannah Arendt had the right of it when she said the leader of a totalitarian state (or in this case a totalitarian cult) lies to remind his followers that he is the sole interpreter of reality for them.  It is a sad day when 35% or my fellow citizens will pledge the truth of whatever falls our of tRump's pie hole.

Lickspittiling for Dummies

       Although I wouldn't waste a minute of my life watching the Republican presidential debate on Wednesday, I have seen some snippets and heard commentary on each debater's performance.  From what I can gather, they all believe in climate change, but we shouldn't do anything about it;  we need to secure our borders, but they don't have a plan to do it and lastly, the justice system has been weaponized against Republicans.  So, where was the debate?

Flipping like burgers

         As the 19 defendants in Fani Willis' sweeping RICO indictment turn themselves in at the Fulton county courthouse this week, several, including Rudy Giuliani have requested meetings with Ms. Willis in advance of their arraignment.  I can smell the burgers, and many of them are ready to flip.

Projection, 24/7

        One of the things you can count on in the next election cycle is Republicans portraying Joe Biden as a drooling, senile old man who can barely get through a day without tripping over a sandbag or his own tongue.   Of course this is at odds with the other GOP meme; Joe Biden is a criminal mastermind who has been orchestrating a criminal enterprise his whole adult life.  What is it guys, because he can't be both.  However, he can be neither.  Possibly, he is an 80 year old man with a speech impediment doing a fairly good job in the most demanding occupation on earth.

     Meanwhile, the leading candidate for the Republican nomination for president is doing a fairly good  imitation of a doddering old fool playing at being the mastermind of a plot to subvert the 2020 election.  

Sucking the oxygen

      As Hawaiians continue to pickup the pieces of their lives in the aftermath of devastating wildfires and Californians brace for Hurricane Hilary, most of the news centers around the latest indictment of the former guy and its effect on the 2024 elections.   Mother Earth is burning and all we can think about is a washed up hustler's chances to bring down American democracy.

     Climate change is the number one existential threat to life on earth, period.   I realize a 2nd tRump administration would be a disaster for our ability to fight climate change, but the news media's  following of every twist and turn of Donny Two Scoops' fight to remain out of prison is not helping.  We should be learning how to fight climate change, not studying the minutia of our criminal justice system.

Deja Vu all over again

      Yogi Berra's malapropism seems more appropriate than ever in light of Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis' indictment of Donny Two Scoops and his not so merry band of election deniers and insurrectionists. 

      The same script played out, albeit more violently, in the south in the decades following the Civil War.  As a kid growing up in the 1950s and 60s in New York, I learned about the cause of the war, but the history of the aftermath might as well have been written and probably was by a white supremacist.  We learned about carpetbaggers who descended on the prostrate confederacy in the years after the war to profit on their fellow citizens circumstances.  we also learned about the "scalawags" or southerners who collaborated with them.  

     In reality, this was revisionist history which whitewashed the "war between the states" and those who brought the authoritarian Jim Crow states which held sway in the south for 90 years.

    Now, tRump and his henchmen want to bring a new era of hate to the south in the wake of Willis' attempt to bring accountability to the former guy.  Let's hope the textbook writers for the next generation brush up on the reality of southern and northern racism and its crippling effects on politics and the law.

When is it enough

        Donald tRump was indicted yesterday by a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia along with 18 other men and women for trying to overturn the 2020 election in the state.  It is a sprawling document using the RICO statutes in Georgia law to describe a conspiracy to subvert the will of voters who cast their ballot for Joe Biden.

      It's hard to overstate the seriousness of the indictment as far as Donny Two Scoops is concerned.  He is caught on tape soliciting Georgia election officials to change over 11,000 votes to overturn the election.  He could potentially be convicted based solely on that one phone call.  Also, he can't expect a pardon from a Republican governor who doesn't have that power.   

     This trial may take up to two years to play out, but I can't imagine a world where a jury would fail to convict the disgraced former guy on many of the counts he is being tried for.

We have met the enemy, etc.

       As the grand jury in Fulton County, Ga., convenes today to hear prosecutor Fani Willis present evidence that implicates ex president Donald tRump in efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia, I can't help but wonder how we got here and why there aren't more state investigations into Donny Two Scoops and his band of merry corrupt lawyers.

      I suppose the infamous call the twice impeached, disgraced former president made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, demanding he find 11,781 votes and thereby flip the state from Joe Biden to tRump, is so egregious it demanded action.   There doesn't seem to be smoking guns in other states where the tRump campaign tried to intervene.   It doesn't mean there were no illegalities involved.

    To paraphrase Rachel Maddow,  it's not so much the multiple indictments raining down on tRump, but how it is he got elected in the first place.   We the people enabled this and now we need to fix it.  Thanks to Fani Willis, accountability is starting to take place.

Another legend passes

       Robbie Robertson has left this mortal coil.   The lead singer and writer (some say) of many of the Band's iconic songs died at the age of 80.  I was never a huge fan of the group.  A good friend who knew Levon Helm, the drummer and lone American in the group said Helm felt Robertson hogged much of the credit for songwriting many of the Band's hits.  This soured me on Robertson, who may have offered a different story.    Regardless, Robertson and company put out a number of evocative songs that still have me singing along when I hear them.  The Weight, Up on Cripple Creek and The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down come to mind.   Besides, it's hard to work up any animus to a man with the same first name as me!  RIP, Robbie.

Treat us all that way

       Now that there is a possibility that Donny Two Scoops may actually have to spend the rest of his life in the crowbar hotel, those who can't imagine that happening are creating logistical roadblocks, such as protesting the Secret Service may have to assign men to a prison detail.  Really?  Pretty weak tea.  After their shift is over, the agents can go home, unlike the protectee.  

Above or Below

     After reading Jack Goldsmith's column in today's NYT, I no doubt experienced a blood pressure spike.  Goldsmith, an Assistant Attorney General during The Shrub's administration has cultivated an above the fray persona and has appeared as a non partisan talking head on left and right cable news shows.  In this latest essay, he reveals himself as a party apparatchik, issuing smarmy advice to special counsel Jack Smith and implying the Biden administration is persecuting poor Donald tRump to the detriment of the republic.

     I kept waiting for Goldsmith to come around to professing that despite the dangers of prosecuting an ex president, we must preserve the axiom no one is above the law.  But despite admitting tRump had created the mess we now find ourselves in, according to this Republican toady, the optics are just not right and anyhow it is all the Democrats' fault, somehow.

Slowly they turned

       tRump's main defense lawyer for the Jan. 6 conspiracy case, John Lauro, spent most of the day on Sunday running the tired "free speech" defense past an increasingly intolerant audience of pundits.   Obviously Cheeto Jesus and his henchmen prepared in advance for an incitement charge and when Jack Smith didn't deliver, they went with their canned response anyway.

     When Lauro got tired of being contradicted, he changed gears and tried what is now being called the "aspirational defense".  In this not so closely reasoned defense, the orange menace was not leading a criminal conspiracy, he was just asking politely for everyone from VP Mike Pence to Georgia Secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to join in his coup attempt.  In this fantasy, tRump is merely aspiring to overthrow a democratically elected government.  We'll see, but I don't think this particular dog is up for hunting.

What's wrong with the Republican party?

        Over in the Lawyers, Guns and Money blog, Paul Campos argues anyone who belongs to or supports the institutional Republican party is supporting an authoritarian, ethno-nationalist agenda.  I agree with his assessment with the proviso that not every member of the party implicitly supports such goals.   There is a small, but substantial minority in the party who support the traditional Republican mantra of small government, low taxes and a strong national defense.   Many of these people vote for whatever candidate the party supports, much as many rank and file democrats do for their party's nominee.

     The trial of Donny Two Scoops for attempting to subvert democracy with the aid and connivance of the Republican party will, i hope, open the eyes of these Republicans to the danger their party poses to American liberal democracy.  Only several crushing electoral defeats will start the process of reform in one of the country's two main political parties.

Weather or climate

      The other morning, the village of Saranac Lake reported a temperature of 36 degrees Fahrenheit.  In the midst of record heat throughout the world in July; now recognized as the hottest month in human history, the little town in the heart of the Adirondacks provided a little relief from the otherwise oppressive weather news.

     Thanks to the melting icecap in Greenland and its interference with the Gulf Stream, our area is likely to experience cooler than normal temperatures as climate change proceeds.  If present trends continue we will (probably not in my lifetime) see an influx of climate refugees from the southern and western US as large portions of the country become uninhabitable at least during the summer.  The disruption of life around the world is hard to comprehend, but it must  be addressed or chaos will be the response.

What does accountability look like?

        Well,  Donnie Two Scoops has endured his third criminal indictment since leaving office.  Special Counsel Jack Smith is charging the twice impeached, disgraced former president with three counts, including conspiracy to defraud the US government and to deny voters the franchise.

       These charges go to the heart of the argument that tRump cares nothing about democracy when it conflicts with his self interest.  I'll let the cable news talking heads suss out the finer points, but if I were the orange menace, I'd be more worried about these indictments than any of the others, so far.

Our tangled health care system

    My recent brush with our health care system, thanks to the Divine Mrs. M, has been an eye opener.  Two of my children are Registered Nurses, so I have heard horror stories about patient care for years.  But the poor outcome of the Divine one's first visit to our local hospital is a cautionary tale.  Despite seemingly endless blood drawing and testing which showed elevated white cell counts, the attending physician blithely recommended discharge after a 2 day course off IV antibiotics.

      The doctor prescribed a course of oral antibiotics at home, but after a couple of days it was apparent this treatment was not working and after a visit to her primary care office it was recommended we again repair to the ER.  7 days later the patient is finally being discharged now that the condition is reasonably under control.  Fingers crossed.

      My wife's infection is fairly common and well understood.  Why the botched treatment?  Our local hospital is a point of community pride.  It is not owned by a private equity firm looking for maximum profit.  Yet, the staffing is sparse and many of the nurses are recent graduates who are being mentored by women and men who are barely out of school themselves.  My daughters correctly diagnosed the condition and probably could have recommended the correct treatment, but both of them have years of experience to back up their diagnosis.   It would seem we have a shortage of well trained and experienced hospital staff.   I don't know what the solution to this problem entails, but certainly more and better trained nurses and doctors would be a start.

The loudest voices

        A recent NYT article says that over 50% of the American population believes Covid was  leaked from a lab in China.   Meanwhile, among experts, less than 5% give credence to that origin theory.  The overwhelming consensus is the virus evolved naturally in the wild.   You could ask why the difference in opinion between the public and experts?  Part of it is the subject is incredibly complicated and reading the data requires knowledge at the PhD level.   The other part is people's desire to make China the villain in a morality play.   Also, the media megaphone is being used by those who prefer the later narrative.  Anytime the evidence gets in the way of a good story...

The teamsters and the future of unions in America

       Obviously, the title of this post would seem to demand much more than a few paragraphs to do it justice.  However, in the interest of brevity, here is my take on the new contract negotiated by the Teamsters and UPS and its possible effects on the labor union movement in the US.

       The new contract union members will soon vote on is basically the wishlist the union presented to management.   Full time workers will get hefty raises over the life of the contract and part timers who represent nearly half of UPS employees will start out at $21/hr. with automatic raises at the end of six months.  In addition, the company will install air conditioning in its delivery trucks which have been likened to microwave ovens.

      Hundreds of thousands of Amazon employees are reading news of this contract and many of them will be open to Teamster organizers.   This is the new frontier of labor organizing.  If the unions are able to organize a significant chunk of the service industry, union membership will explode.   This will have the effect of balancing the power of capital, much as it did in the years following WWII.

Got to love the gerontocracy

      Mitch McConnel looked like what you would expect an 81 year old with moderate dementia to look like yesterday.   He began his weekly press conference strongly, but after nearly completing his first sentence, he stopped and had a deer in the headlights moment which lasted for at least 20 seconds.  He looked like a broken old man until some fellow GOP senators stepped in and escorted him to his office.  He returned to the podium a little later and continued as if nothing had happened, but the  cat is out of the bag.

     This incident raises questions on both sides of the aisle.   Regardless how well many of the octogenarians in congress look, the truth is that mental disability and dementia are right around the corner for many.   It's time for a look at mandatory retirement beyond a certain age.  I would throw out 76 as the cutoff age at the end of whatever term the officeholder is elected to.   We have to do something before something like Ronald Reagan's 2nd term becomes our reality.

The three Cs

       China, criminality and climate change are likely to be the major issues facing the GOP candidates for the party's presidential nomination.  Of course the multiple criminal trials of the frontrunner, Donald tRump, will take center stage in any serious debate forum.  Candidates with little or no chance of winning will nonetheless be reluctant to criticize Donny Two Scoops and thereby jeopardize their chances of joining a tRump administration.

        China will be the secondary issue in the campaign.   Although, much as Japan was in the 1990s, China will be feared and hated as the main challenger to America's global empire, the country is already running into the same sort of demographic problems which derailed Japan's ascendancy.  However, that won't stop the candidates from bashing China and blaming Democrats for all problems associated with Sino-American relations.

       Finally, they won't bring up the subject of climate change, but the infernal summer weather and the definitive consensus that burning fossil fuels is leading to permanent climate change will spark questions from the media and citizens at town halls which will be difficult to dodge.   There will be a cottage industry on the right to provide deflective answers to difficult questions regarding climate and the legacy a waiting those who deny the science.

      Of course most of these candidates will fall back on divisive cultural issues.   But the substantive problems outlined above should provide plenty of fodder for Democratic ads calling our Republican obfuscation.

drops in a leaky bucket

       A story in today's WaPo lauds the efforts of a few Marylanders who are taking care of and returning to the Chesapeake Bay a few million oyster larvae in an program to revive the oyster industry in the bay.

     I haven't thought of oysters much since the Divine Mrs. M and I lived on the eastern shore for a year back in the late 70s.   At the time, my uncle was a waterman on the Bay and that meant he alternately fished for crabs in the summer and oysters in the fall and winter months.   The industry was already in decline when he moved from Long Island to the little town of Rumbley, Md. in the late 1960s.   He managed to make a living on the crab and oyster business until he retired, but the handwriting was on the wall.

     Feel good programs like Marylanders Grow Oysters are all well and good, but the underlying causes of the decline of the Bay; overfishing, pollution and climate change are not going to be solved by a few retirees raising a oyster spat.

Aging into the system

        The Divine Mrs. M had an encounter with the American health care system last week and for the most part it went well.  But, I have a few niggling doubts about health care for seniors in this country.

      After showing up in the ER with symptoms of a serious infection, the aforementioned patient was held overnight and at one point moved to a busy hallway for several hours before being admitted.   All this while telling her it could be a contagious infection.  Fortunately that was not the case, but it is a telling indictment of hospital procedures.

      Four days later, without noticing a great deal of improvement in her symptoms, the Divine one was notified she  would be discharged.  Again, fortunately, we have several medical professionals in the family and I am able to care for her.   However, without the support system, I'm not sure she would have been able to cope with the numerous demands her treatment made and continues to make of her.

     The best thing you can say about our health care system is it encourages people to be healthy.  The worst you can say is it has no clue about the demands of after care once the patient leaves the hospital.  It will not get better as the population ages.

in a Barbie world

       I have to admit that growing up, I never really "got" Barbie.  My younger sister had platoons of semi-dressed and naked Barbie dolls all over the house.   But despite the evident sexuality conveyed by her pulchritudinous charms they always seemed asexual to me.  My own daughters flirted with the phenomenon in the mid 90s, but again, Barbie seemed like some unattainable perverse ideal .  In the era before internet bullying, Barbie induced many a case of bulimia and self loathing in  young women who didn't come anywhere near the physical ideal she represented. 

     Now comes the Barbie movie.   I have to admit it will be a guilty pleasure to see Greta Gerwig's take on the Mattel icon.   It can't hurt to have Margot Robbie in the title role!   In a strident post feminist world, Michigan governor Gretchen Witmer has a Governor Barbie  doll and glories in its signing legislation.  In her case, may we anticipate a President Barbie in 2028?

Tarnishing the golden rule

        In a story reported by CNN, Texas governor, Greg Abbot, has directed state troopers to push would be immigrants back into the Rio Grande river and admonish them to go back to Mexico.   The order supposedly also requires the troopers to withhold drinking water from immigrants despite temperatures well over 100 degrees in the shade. 

      Abbot is a perfect reflection of the modern day Republican party.  I'm quite sure if he had been the Roman governor of Judea he would have had Jesus Christ arrested for vagrancy.   Only a tiny minority of the bible thumping members of the GOP ever attend any church services and even those who do rarely practice what the new testament tells us on how to treat the poor, the sick and those fleeing from oppression.

Alternate universes

      That tRump received a target letter from special counsel, Jack Smith, is abundantly clear to consumers of mainstream and left leaning media.  To the devotees of Faux News and its right wing imitators, not so much.   The imminent 3rd indictment of the twice impeached, sexual assaulter and former president, this time on possible sedition charges, provokes a big yawn from tRump supporters.   Various GOP presidential candidates responded to questions about Smith's intentions with attacks on the DOJ and Joe Biden.  This is the Bizzaro World today's Republican party inhabits.

Slouching toward the apocalypse

       Triple digit heat grips much of the nation as the work week begins.   In the northeast, flooding rain washed out numerous roads over the weekend and more thunderstorms are expected tonight and tomorrow.   At this point virtually no one is denying the reality of human driven climate change, yet no politician running for president  has made it a signature issue and tied their campaign to it.

      Yes, there are plenty of issues confronting the nation in the years ahead, but they all pale in comparison to the existential threat to humanity a rapidly warming earth poses.   Republicans remain in thrall to fossil fuel interests and have decided culture war issues are their ticket to power.  A vote for any GOP candidate from dogcatcher to president is a vote to condemn our descendants literally to a hellish future.  

     Meanwhile, many Democrats continue to avoid the hard choices that must be made relatively quickly to avoid the worst outcomes climate change threatens.   The Biden administration has made a start on the issue, but it must use the increasingly dangerous weather conditions we are enduring as a springboard to increasing the general public's understanding of the dangers we face.  

Running on empty

       One of the GOP's main claims to relevance is the trust the American people have in its ability to run the economy.   I would add a disclaimer to this premise.  The budget deficit has increased under every Republican president since Ronald Reagan.

      Despite their obvious incompetence, Republicans get the benefit of the doubt on economics and they have been blaming the Biden administration for high inflation for the past year.   Now, new data shows inflation rapidly subsiding and the economy remaining strong.  This combination previews the possibility of a "soft landing".   If this indeed is what is occurring, Republicans will have little to run on besides abortion restrictions, book banning and Hunter Biden's laptop.  Good luck with that!

Climate change becomes more personal

        As we alternately swelter in the heat and humidity or watch thunderstorms dump heavy rains on increasingly saturated soils, there is little acknowledgement by our political leaders that the climate change clock is ticking and action needs to be taken now.

        Northern New York and Vermont have long been viewed as insulated from climate change to a greater extent than say the Southwest.   Sure it may get a little warmer in the summer, but certainly not the triple digit heat and humidity that even NYC is experiencing.  

      That smug certainty was wiped away in a few hours on Monday as up to 9 inches of rain fell on Vermont in the space of a few hours.  Later in the day, the state's capitol, Montpelier, was inundated by floodwaters even worse than those caused by tropical storm Irene.  Both were called thousand year events, yet they occurred less than 20 years apart.

      As the air warms it can trap and hold more and more moisture which eventually falls to the ground often thousands of miles away.   Water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico are as high as 97 degrees.  This accelerates the process.   Meanwhile another large insurance company has announced it will no longer cover homes and businesses in Florida because it is too risky.  

     The change is accelerating, but our leaders heads are still buried in the sand.   Bill Nye, the science guy, recently said each candidate for public office should by asked if they believe in climate change and what plans do they have to mitigate it.   He challenged the media to do its job.  We need to vote like our lives depend on it, because they do.

Dick Tracy's watch

      My granddaughter, Hannah, turned 9 yesterday.   Among the presents she received to celebrate the occasion was a "Gizmo watch".   What, you may ask, is a Gizmo watch.  I had no idea until the Divine Mrs. M schooled me.  It turns out, for the technology challenged among us, the Gizmo watch is the 21st century answer to the Dick Tracy watch used by the eponymous detective I read in the Sunday funnies in the 50s and 60s.   I was fascinated by Tracy's ability to make phone calls through his wristwatch.   And here we are, 60 plus years later with a 9 year old making calls (to trusted folks in her network) on old Dick's watch.   Makes me feel like a kid again!

The "so what" theory of political accountability

       The NYT published a meticulously researched article about Clarence Thomas and the Supreme Court yesterday.   It shows a direct connection between Thomas and a team of right wing billionaires dating back to the early 1990s.   Thomas was supplied with lavish trips and perks by people with business before the Court.   It was and continues to be an appalling conflict of interest.   In an earlier era, Thomas and probably Samuel Alito as well would have been hounded into resigning as a result of their ethical lapses.   However, in the age of tRump, Republicans especially tend to give the middle finger to the public in cases like these.

     Many people respond with the cynical  take that everyone does it.  Yes, the Democrats engage in corruption also, but for the most part it is the garden variety both parties have engaged in since time immemorial.   Thomas and Alito and tRump are a symptom of a much more serious malaise gripping the political system.   Using their exalted positions for personal enrichment sends a message that Democracy itself is on the auction block.   At the very least, Thomas should face censure .  But it won't happen.

They are not happy warriors

       Last week, in a column in the NYT, David French told us the people who adore Cheeto Jesus and abhor those who do not share this feeling are not racist killjoys, but instead are a joyful people who have had little contact with the left and have found a community of like minded individuals.   I almost stopped reading at that point, but because the screed was mercifully short I continued to the end.

      Apparently, French feels the MAGA enthusiasts who are mainly professed evangelicals and are heavily concentrated in the south are searching for the fulfillment they used to get by attending church services.   Many of the most invested followers of tRump haven't attended services at their local church in years.  He tries to square this circle by asserting that the vitriol these Magats hurl at their ideological opponents is mostly pro forma and they are really good ole' boys and girls who wouldn't actually do violence.   Apparently, French feels the events of January 6, 2020 were an aberration.