Voting

Everyone in the media is wringing their hands about voter turnout.  It seems we have to somehow convince young people to vote.  What is the problem here.  If you are registered to vote, it takes about 15 minutes of your day to cast a ballot.  If you are not registered it may take a few minutes longer to take care of that aspect of your civic duty.  Of course, I'm a late middle aged white man whose presence at a polling place is a given on election day.  No one will dispute or even turn a hairy eyeball in my direction when I show up to vote.  I have voted in every election since I turned 18 and fully expect to continue this tradition.  So what is the big deal with this younger generation.  There doesn't seem to be any studies explaining why so few of the children of the baby boomers show up to vote.  As I said, time spent on actually voting is negligible.  The excuse that "my vote doesn't count" is feeble and self centered.  The disincentives many jurisdictions use to discourage voting is something to consider.  However, I think the main reason less than 60% of eligible voters cast a ballot is apathy.  This may be the hardest behavior to overcome, as anyone who has raised teenagers can attest.  It is still no excuse.  The stakes are extremely high and the policies that will be enacted if the insult comedian wins are so horrific as to be mind boggling.  Voting, even in the face of myriad distractions is not only the right and duty of everyone, but a commitment to a future we can all embrace.

Got to make the sauce

Like that tired baker in the old Dunkin Donuts commercial who had to make the donuts, with the abundance of tomatoes in the garden, I had to make the sauce.  This year I grew a few San Marzano tomato plants and the results are nothing short of amazing!  The plants are literally carpeted with tomatoes and they are practically dehydrating on the vine.   Squeezing these fruits is like making tomato paste.  It is that thick.  Yesterday's batch may be the best I have ever made.  Despite or possibly because of the lack of rain, the tomatoes are concentrating their flavor.  It is a vintage year.  Unfortunately the same cannot be said of much of the rest of the garden.  The lettuce continues to grow sans moisture, but the late broccoli and cauliflower could use a drink.  I watered the spinach plantings from late August and early September in hopes they will produce before the frost.  The late corn produced ears, but they are markedly smaller than earlier plantings.  The eggplant and peppers are still blossoming, but it will be too late to produce more fruit.  As with every garden, there are winners and losers.  On balance, this year will be remembered for the sauce.

Birther in Chief

During an interview with a reporter from the Washington Post, the insult comedian running for the Presidency of the US refused to categorically state that the current president was born in Hawaii.  Trump made his political reputation, such as it is, as the spokesman for the "Birther" movement.  This fringe of the American electorate, which includes many of his supporters today, wants to believe that somehow Obama is illegitimate because he was born in a foreign country.  Trump fanned the flames from 2011 until recently.  He demanded the President produce his birth certificate and aided by the right wing media, the uproar grew so loud, the certificate was duly produced.  This quieted most people, but Trump continued to allege the documentation was somehow bogus.  A fairly large slice of his supporters base their allegiance to him on this issue.  For him to admit Obama's legitimacy could be interpreted by these fools as a betrayal.  Therefore Trump must feel he will pay a price for his acceptance of reality.  I can't wait for the first presidential debate, when he is asked in front of tens of millions of people to affirm the President's birthplace.  That is one reason why I think we will not see a debate in this election.

Liberal angst

As one election prognosticator put it, "liberals can be such ninnies".   He projects a 90% probability that Hillary will win the election, despite the fallout of "phlegm-gazi" and Trump's latest surge in the polls.   As Sam Wang says, the number of persuadable voters left in the country is tiny.  The real work is the get out the vote teams.  Here is where the Clinton campaign has the big advantage.  They have out organized Trump from the beginning and as long as they mobilize democrats to vote, Clinton will win.  There are more registered Democrats than Republicans, so the math is simple.  If we vote, we win.  Meanwhile, The Divine Mrs. M will have 55 more days to worry about how things can still go wrong.

What is to be done?

The liberal part of the social media has been working the mainstream version of itself tirelessly for the past few weeks as it protests the steady drumbeat of negative coverage of Hillary Clinton's campaign while barely protesting the torrent of lies and BS emanating from Trump's.  In sport's jargon, it's called "working the refs".  So far, the foremost names in the media such as the NYT have declined to be influenced.  It was up to President Obama to call out some of the more outrageous lies at a rally in Philadelphia yesterday.  With a 58% approval rating, Obama is more popular than the media, so his criticisms not only had to be covered, but possibly may shame the press and TV journalists to be more even-handed for the rest of the campaign.  We can only hope.

The latest Hillary tempest

As Lawrence O'Donell pointed out last night, what Hillary voter would switch their vote to Donald Trump even if it was revealed she had a life threatening disease and wouldn't be able to finish a 4 year term?  Conversely, what committed Trump voter would switch to Hillary if their roles were reversed?  None and none are the correct answers.  Both candidates have engaged in punishing work schedules for more than a year now.  If anything, the actual work required by the Presidency will be a vacation by comparison.  It can be argued Clinton has put in more actual work than Trump.  Standing in front of cheering crowds and spewing a mind numbing catalog of egregious falsehood is his stock in trade.  Crafting serious policy agendas and explaining them in literally hundreds of events and interviews is physically and intellectually draining.  Fact free assertions vs. careful policy pronouncements.....hmmm.   Meanwhile, the press will obsess about "transparency" regarding Clinton's health while giving the latest Trump smears and insults pass without comment.  It is fortunate that Trump seems not to be able to expand his "basket of deplorables" beyond 40-42% of the voting public.  Hopefully that is the upper limit of racist, misogynist, xenophobes available to be seduced by The Donald's schtick.

Late summer gardening

Gardening after Labor Day is both satisfying and a little frustrating.  I experienced both feelings during a busy weekend.  The normally harvested items continue to produce.  The warm, dry weather has produced a bumper crop of tasty tomatoes.  The dryness has prevented cracking and concentrated the tomato flavor.  I made a vintage batch of sauce on Sunday for an impromptu family dinner.  Most of the other crops are still doing well, despite the dryness. The heavier soils in my gardens retain moisture fairly well.  The late broccoli and cauliflower are slowing due to lack of rain and the late corn needs one more decent shower.  The lettuce has been outstanding and the peppers may make a late set of small fruit before frost.  The winter squashes are maturing nicely and the late spinach has gotten just enough rain to continue to grow.  I have reluctantly put away the planter and will concentrate on cleaning up the weedier beds in preparation for fall planting of garlic.  Here's hoping for a mild October and long harvest.