Gardening on steroids

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

New Deals

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

Power and the people

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

Rudy to the rescue

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

Hurtingly stupid

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

The grass is always greener

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

It's the economy, once more

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