It's not what you know...

    The little aphorism leading off this post ends of course with "It's who you know".  In bookend posts, the highly entertaining Lawyers, Guns and Money blog shows exactly how full the tRump swamp remains and how the supposed American meritocracy is a cruel joke.
     As nearly everyone who pays attention to politics knows by now, Mitch McConnel is a brazen participant in the lobbying and payoffs which blight our democracy and his wife, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao is a co-conspirator.   McConnel is up for election next year in Kentucky and his poll numbers are underwater.  Chao has arranged for her undersecretary to route lucrative contracts for infrastructure spending to several large projects in the bluegrass state.
     Meanwhile, a Yale law professor who wrote a glowing editorial in favor of Brett Kavanaugh before his confirmation hearing just had her daughter accept a prestigious clerkship with the aforementioned newly minted Supreme Court Justice.  Another coincidence, or the time honored transaction of swamp dwellers?
     Finally, in a look at what a real meritocracy might look like, Scott Lemieux details Elizabeth Warren's rise from a dirt poor Okie to a law professor specializing in bankruptcy and its effects on the middle class to a seat in the Senate and now with a legitimate shot at election to the presidency.  In all respects she is the polar opposite of the bloated moron who now occupies the post.  If nominated and elected, Warren would validate the American dream and show how hard work and merit can sometimes be rewarded.

North Country Monsoon season

     I know my garden plot is not a stand in for agriculture in the US this year, but the difficulties I have faced so far this year do mirror the experience of many farmers in the northern and central parts of America.
     After 4 days of drying weather with bright sun and low humidity parts of the garden are now dry enough to plant.  Unfortunately, the biggest area for summer and fall plantings remains wetter than normal.  I was able to till the ground, but a second or fine tillage proved impossible, just making a mess of the tilth.   Now we are faced with showers this evening and several days of rain later this week.  If  I was trying to get  a late corn crop in the ground it would probably be impossible for at least 2 more weeks.  I may plant a little sweet corn, but at the rate we are accumulating rain, I will be lucky to make raccoon food by the middle of September.
     Many growers in this area and in the corn belt of the mid west are facing similar deadlines.  If their corn crop isn't planted soon, they will have to switch to soybeans.  They face a different dilemma in that case because Cheetolini's trade war with China is killing the market for US beans.  Altogether, it is not a great year to be a farmer or gardener in many areas of the country.

Overseas embarrassment

     Not to be upstaged by the memorials for the thousands of men who died on D-Day 75 years ago, Cheetolini used up precious airtime to bash his political enemies and called Robert Mueller, a decorated Vietnam veteran a fool.  Not to be outdone, the leader of the RNC called on Americans to praise the president* and celebrate America's achievements.
     tRump used "bone spurs" in his feet as an excuse to not serve in Vietnam and actually was quoted as saying sexually transmitted diseases were his personal Vietnam.   How this buffoon can be our face on the world stage is a constant source of amazement to me.
   

75 years and counting

     There are probably only a handful of the thousands of allied troops who stormed the beaches of Normandy alive today.  They deserve all the plaudits they are receiving from the grateful residents of America, the UK and Canada.   Their bravery in the face of withering enemy fire and victory they snatched from the Germans rank with the greatest battles in history.   Thank you, indeed, for your selfless sacrifice.
      Very few of the valedictory remarks by speakers or writers will focus on the question of why these patriotic men were asked to lay down their lives on June 6, 1944.  What were the failed policies which cost so many a shot at a full life with loving family.   Yes, we need to remember the sacrifices made, but we also need to study the choices made by the statesmen on both sides which lead to the carnage of WW2.   The aphorism that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it is more true than ever as we are being frog marched into possible conflict by the ignorant buffoon in the Oval Office.

The grifters way to riches

    Several pundits have zeroed in on the right wing grifter problem thanks to a piece in the National Review which laments the hundreds of millions of dollars willingly donated mostly by older Americans to scammers.  This con artists appeal mostly to the social issues held dear by these citizens.
     As Kevin Drum points out, the right wing is susceptible to these grifters because the entire project of the republican party is to attract working class voters to support an organization inimical to their own interests.  The GOP is single minded in representing the top 10% of the country, but the voting math doesn't work out unless they can convince a fairly large portion of the working class that they are really working in their interest.
     Tax cuts for the wealthy trickle down.  Regulations of dangerous chemicals hurt employment.  Social Security is a scam which will be gone when you retire.  Oil drilling and coal mining  provide good employment.   The IRS targets right wing groups.  The list goes on, but you get the idea.
     This sort of dishonesty leads inevitably to the kind of scams which target anyone who buys into the ideas listed.   It creates people like the televangelist Kenneth Copeland, who is said to be worth $750,000,000.  He has a fleet of 5 private jets thanks to his audience of right wing believers.  There are dozens of Copelands out there.   An entire movement based on blatant dishonesty inevitably creates the conditions for these kinds of grifts.   Unfortunately, the typical mark for these scams is a Faux News listener, so even if they hear the truth, they are inoculated against it.

The Trumpster fire continues

     Not content to interfere in the politics of one ally,  Cheetolini decided the other day to levy tariffs on another to try and coerce said ally to do his bidding.  This is America in 2019.   Fresh off Air Force One in the UK, tRump criticized the government's approach to Brexit, and recommended his BFFs, Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson to be chief negotiator and prime minister, respectively.  He is expected to draw up to a half million protesters in London before he leaves.   So much for one putative allied nation.
      The president* also levied a 5% tariff on any goods entering the US from Mexico.  The stated reason for this action is to get the Mexican government to "do something" about the flood of asylum seekers battering our southern borders.  Most  of these luckless would be immigrants are fleeing violence in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.  Much of this problem can be laid at the door of our policies in these countries going back to the early 1900s.   We have consistently backed right wing dictatorships which have stolen much of these countries' wealth and done nothing about the violence the abject poverty of their citizens has engendered.
     It is estimated the tariff will cost the average American family somewhere between $500 and a thousand dollars per year, and our fearless leader is promising more pain if Mexico does not somehow control the flow of people through its territory.  
     Some people feel this administration is just a bad dream we will wake from next November, but I am not that sanguine.  We need to do something now and our representatives in DC need to grow a backbone and fight the capricious behavior of this feckless moron.
     In other news, I want to shout out  Happy Birthday to my oldest daughter Alicia.  Just saying that makes me so proud.   You go girl!

Garden update

     It has been a long, cold, wet, miserable spring.  There, I've said out loud what most gardeners and farmers in the northeast have been saying under their breath as they struggle to get plantings in on time.  The added pressure of trying to have something for my CSA members every week is wearing on me.  The spinach and asparagus have performed fairly well, but everything else is on strike for warmer, drier weather.   Today is a microcosm of my spring.   At 6 a.m. it was 45 degrees with a brisk north breeze.  The soil, even in well drained areas, is still saturated and as I weeded one of my asparagus patches it was more like I was transplanting the weeds from one side of the row to the other.   The aforementioned lack of dry and sunny weather looks to be ameliorated later this week, so perhaps we will catch up, but I'm not counting on it.
    In other news, Happy Birthday Neil.   Comparing notes with you on a daily basis is one of the highlights of my day.  Keep rollin' bro!