September
1 September
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
Some good News, I have a place to live in October. I'll put off finding a home for November through January until I see what kind of place I have picked for October.
The Park that responded does not have an email address on their website but I found one on another site and received a prompt reply. This is in high contrast to the other Park in the area that has not responded to three Messages sent to them using their website Contact Us Form.
The other good News has been the weather these past few days. The high temperatures have been just over 80° with a nice breeze that has allowed me to live comfortably without the A/C and I have not had to run the little fan that is plugged in to my 110v work around. There are five warmer days in the forecast starting Thursday but with any luck I’ll have a new converter and A/C will be available again.
This is a very sad commentary on the United States. I know what Bulgaria was like during the years 1996–1998 and the economic and social health there was ‘poor’. Life expectancy in the United States is less than Chile and Costa Rica, even if you believe the USA is exceptional you can probably accept that — but Cuba, no way!
[T]here is one other measure that is worth reporting—life expectancy. This serves as a proxy for relative economic and social health and is often used to measure a country’s progress. The United States has never had the highest life expectancy in the world, but in 1960 it was nearly seventy years (only four years lower than Norway, the highest–ranked country at that time). If we now rank life expectancy among the top twenty independent countries in 1960 and compare it with the same countries today, we can see how each country’s ranking has changed over these years. The United States has been the worst performer (apart from Bulgaria), since life expectancy has not improved by anything like as much as elsewhere. Furthermore, life expectancy in the United States is now lower than in Chile, Costa Rica, and Cuba, not to mention three US colonies (Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands).–Empire in Retreat: The Past, Present, and Future of the United States by Victor Bulmer-Thomas
Caitlin says much the same things in her postings that Victor Bulmer-Thomas does, she just has a more 'in your face' style.
The US “economy”, if you can even call it that, is upheld not just by an incomprehensible web of debt and bureaucratic fiat, but by a petrodollar agreement on arms manufacturing and military alliances, by endless acts of mass-scale brutality, and by the most sophisticated propaganda machine ever to exist. The United States of America is built on war, is made of war, and is sustained by war. If the wars end, America as we know it ends.–You Can Have Peace Or The US Empire. You Can’t Have Both., Caitlin Johnstone
2 September
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
The low was 47.3° this morning and felt even colder. I may have to be wearing my wool shirt jacket before long, thought I should have had it on this morning. The weather guessers have the lows forecast to be in the 50s this next week and then expect it to move down into the upper 40s - like this morning.
The converter was delivered yesterday and the ‘boss’ sent me and email just like we had agreed. The fact that he did what we had agree to scores some points. I’ll be going to town tomorrow to get it installed. With a poor laptop battery I have no idea when tomorrow’s posting will be up but hopefully it will be done using power through the converter.
There will not be much happening here today. I should finish reading the book that I have had on Kindle Fire longer than usual and move on to the next one that I have stacked up on there. I am also trying to learn enough Javascript that I can replace ‘characters’ such as this ’ or “ with the HTML ’ and “. If I don’t type the characters as HTML they do not show correctly in my Chrome browser, don’t know about other browsers.
After months of hype and the government doing everything they could to destroy the US economy we get this report from the CDC (I have added the bold). Out of a claimed 183,000 alleged COVID deaths, only about 10,000 had no chronic comorbidity at the time of death.
Comorbidities:
Table 3 shows the types of health conditions and contributing causes mentioned in conjunction with deaths involving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death. The number of deaths with each condition or cause is shown for all deaths and by age groups.–Weekly Updates by Select Demographic and Geographic Characteristics, CDC National Center for Health Statistics
The Saker has posted good article on the Empire in Retreat that is supportive of what Victor Bulmer-Thomas has said.
In summary, the grand strategies of the past have either been discarded (Opening to China) or are in serious trouble with a doubtful future (Grand Chessboard). More recent strategic attempts to deal with Russia did not get anywhere (Reset) and those dealing with China failed to get much traction either (Pivot, TPP). It is certainly questionable whether the War on Terror achieved any significant reduction in terrorism around the world. The semi-grand strategies appear to have resulted in the US getting bogged down in various quagmires. The current grand strategy of the US government appears to be an effort to use any means possible to keep “running the world.” If articles published in Foreign Affairs are any indication, however, it would seem that the scholarly community and many former officials possess a very pessimistic view of the US pursuing hegemony. By extension, this pessimism could also apply to some members of the Council on Foreign Relations. To date, however, the experts appear to be hard pressed to create a positive-sounding and marketable alternative. As a result, politicians, mainstream media, and the public are seemingly unaware of the potential for a major crisis. A hard landing for the Yankee Empire is not a welcome prospect.–Semi-Grand Strategies, by Observer R for the Saker Blog
3 September
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
We did our usual morning walk and headed for town with breakfast for me at Safire. Finished up there in time to move up the street a block to the mechanic and have the converter replaced.
That has been an all day job. The owner did the work himself but he had never done a replacement before and was trying to do it from the installation instructions that accompanied the new unit. He was stuck at a place in the instructions where he didn’t know what to do.
So when he went to lunch I took the bit in my teeth and did what I thought the instructions were saying. He said he understood what to do from that point and had it done by around 3:30. It took him so long because he was on the telephone as much as he was working on the converter plus he had employees coming to him every few minutes.
I have 110v again although I have not tried to run the A/C for very long yet. It does run. The refrigerator is working on 110v rather than propane. Almost all the 12v lines that I have checked work except for the idiot lights on the hood and the hood light. That is something I have plans to replace so that is not a big issue at this time.
I didn’t do much today but what little I did do wore me out. I would never have been able to do the converter replacement on my own. This posting is late in the day but here it is.
A sweeping history of the United States through the lens of empire—and an incisive look forward as the nation retreats from the global stage. A respected authority on international relations and foreign policy, Victor Bulmer–Thomas offers a grand survey of the United States as an empire. From its territorial expansion after independence, through hegemonic rule following World War II, to the nation’s current imperial retreat, the United States has had an uneasy relationship with the idea of itself as an empire.
4 September
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: September 4, 1932
It is good that I have 110v electricity once again. The high temperature yesterday was 87.3° with an expected high today of 88. A couple more days in that same range before the weather guessers think it will cool down. The mornings continue to be colder than they forecast but have added my windbreaker and the walks are very pleasant.
I don’t think I’ll do much of anything today. Feeling lazy and need to catch up on my reading. I have two books on Kindle Fire at this time; one fiction and one nonfiction that I read by switching back and forth. Trying to finish both of them before adding any more books.
5 September
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
I cooked garbanzos yesterday and have yellow split peas in a pot on the stove this morning. When they are done and I add the garbonzos that will make more potage for future ‘linners’. I need to cook more succotash in a few days and then will have my meals prepared for about 10 days or more.
I need to empty holding tanks and take on water this morning. Without the idiot light I’ll have to do that based on elapsed days since last doing it. The water level light was my signal in the past but I always knew when it was time within a day or two.
I don’t know why the hood light and hood exhaust fan were not working but they started to work yesterday. Maybe the idiot lights will come back on as well?
I probably will finish the fiction book that I have been reading on Kindle Fire today. Then I can start to load it up again with some more books, I have plenty in my To Read queue.
Aware that some years must elapse before the official histories will provide a detailed and objective analysis of the experience in Southeast Asia, we have sought a forum whereby some of the more salient aspects6 September
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
One of the idiot lights that I was missing was the battery state of charge which seemed to be reasonably accurate. However, I no longer need it. The new converter has a LED light that flashes every 6 seconds when the battery is fully charged. It flashes more rapidly when the battery is being charged. It is now back to full charge after powering all my 12v needs for over a week.
There are also LED lights that glow red when a fuse in that 12v circuit blows; a VERY nice addition to this converter. I should have done this many years ago rather than wait until I had to do it. If you have a RV that has a Magnetek Model 6345 replace it with a Progressive Dynamics model PD4645V; do it now.
A quick shopping trip into town today. Breakfast at Booga Red’s and pick up groceries at Safeway. Was back in my space at the Park and had a cup of coffee brewed up by 8:30. That has us back where we can have the A/C running with record, or near record, high temperatures for the past couple of days with today and tomorrow to be the same. The weather experts then expect the high to plunge into the upper 70s on Tuesday. I welcome that but have my doubts.
Jules Verne has written, and Virginia Champlin translated, The Tribulations of a Chinaman in China, which is, as a matter of course, highly amusing and absurd. The scenes are laid in a country not often chosen in fiction, and the plan is as novel as it is preposterous. Nobody but this extravagant and irresponsible author would have been likely to have executed such a piece of work. To give the plot would be to spoil it: enough to say that the hero, Kin-fo, who is young, rich, handsome, and about to be married, is also tired of living, and after insuring his life for a hundred years at an immense sum, covering all risks, even of suicide, decides to kill himself that his betrothed and his friend Wang may have the money, but changing his mind agrees with the latter on assassination. Afterwards concluding that he will live, he hunts China over in search of Wang, who has disappeared, two of the company's agents going with him. Their adventures, in which a phonograph and Paul Boyton's armor have an important part, are the wildest conceivable, but all ends well, and Kin-fo, turned philosopher after his vicissitudes, sees that only those who know “how to appreciate life” are fit to live. Jules Verne has evidently “read up” China to good purpose, for there is a great amount of information, down to minute points of etiquette and ways of living, and the descriptions of Chinese matters, geographical, political, and social, are accurate and interesting.–Book promo7 September
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
I devoted, or wasted, a lot of time yesterday morning to the Javascript project. I have been trying to learn Google Apps Script for Google Docs which uses Javascript but have failed miserably. So I have gone to a HTML page where I can insert a Javascript function and have it do ‘things’ with the text on that page. Made some progress.
I was back at it again after I ate ‘linner’ and made some GREAT progress. If I type a ' or a " on my Chrombook keyboard I’ll get a “dumb quote or straight quote” mark when I see it in my Chrome browser. I want a “smart quote or curly quote” mark.
The way that I can get that is to type the HTML for ' which is ‘ for the left side and ’ for the right OR for " the typing requires “ and ”.
The Javascript that I have been trying to write in Google Apps Script will find and replace all the ' and " that I type with the necessary HTML. So, I now have a Google Apps Script for Google Docs that will do that for me and I can use the single and double quote key on the keyboard again. Too Much Information, but it is this kind of stuff that keeps me young. HA
Another pandemic? Maybe CNN can build this up as another crisis that president Trump has done nothing to prevent after all the first case was reported from China or Mongolia (close enough).
After new cases of the bubonic plague were found in Los Angeles, Colorado, and in Mongolia near the Russian border this summer, it appears the infamous plague strain responsible for killing tens of millions of Europeans during the 14th Century continues to surface, this time, in South Lake Tahoe, California.
The US Forest Service, Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, issued a ‘plague warning’ on Thur. (Sept. 3) ahead of Labor Day weekend, informing the public that fleas in the area tested positive for the bubonic plague.&–‘Bubonic Plague Warning’ Issued In Lake Tahoe After Fleas Test Positive, Tyler Durden
An article that will give you something to think about as the November election approaches.
In his famously exhaustive discussion of conspiracies, Machiavelli goes out of his way to emphasize the indispensability of “operational security”—i.e., silence—to success. The first rule of conspiracy is, you do not talk about the conspiracy. The second rule of conspiracy is, you do not talk about the conspiracy.
So why are the Democrats—publicly—talking about the conspiracy?
Because they know that, for it to succeed, it must not look like a conspiracy. They need to plant the idea in the public mind, now, that their unlawful and illegitimate removal of President Trump from office will somehow be his fault.
Never mind the pesky detail that the president would refuse to leave only if he were convinced he legitimately won. Remember: Biden should not concede under any circumstances.–The Coming Coup?, Michael Anton
8 September
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
Yesterday I wrote about my problem of typing quotes on my Chromebook keyboard and not seeing them appear as smart or curly quotes with my Chrome browser. I wrote a Google Apps Script that I think will fix this problem when I do a spellcheck and then run the Script.
There is another problem however; it is the same kind of a problem but involves copying from websites and including what has been copied as a quote. If the quoted passage includes dumb quote marks then they show up in the browser as dump quote marks as if I had typed them. If the quoted passage includes smart quotes, either slanted or curly, then they will appear as ‘Mojibake’ when shown by the Chrome browser.
Since I now know what I am doing with the Google Apps Script, I think, I have written some more code that will fix this problem as well. I can now type quotes on the keyboard and copy from the web and just run the Script against the text prior to including it on the HTML page at my host and it will appear like I want it. Maybe?
This quote is from the new nonfiction book that I have started to read. As in the past I’ll switch back and forth with a novel. The novel is by a new to me author that I’m not sure I’m going to like but it may be too soon to pass judgement.
The project that the US ruling class has cherished since 1945 now has five objectives: (i) to neutralize and subjugate the other triad partners (Europe and Japan) and to minimize their capacity to act outside the American fold; (ii) to establish military control over Nato and to ‘Latin Americanize’ the former parts of the Soviet world; (iii) to assert un–divided control over the Middle East and its oil resources; (iv) to break up China, to ensure the subordination of the other major states (India, Brazil), and to prevent the constitution of any regional blocs that might renegotiate the terms of globalization; and (v) to marginalize regions in the South that are of no strategic interest.–Beyond US Hegemony: Assessing the Prospects for a Multipolar World, Samir Amin
So far this year, Mr. Trump has allowed the Democratic Party to disgrace itself in acquiescing to mobs and riots around the country. In DC, they’ll be daring him to draw the line, perhaps hoping for federal peace officers to step in and finally produce that crop of useful martyrs “the Resistance” longs for. Personally, I don’t think the voters are liable to blame the president for taking action against additional violent anarchy in the nation’s capital. Do you remember those words from the oath of office, by any chance: preserve, protect and defend? Meanwhile, Ol’ White Joe will be standing by, doing as much for his country as the ghost of Millard Fillmore.–The Ghost in the Machine, James Howard Kunstler
9 September
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
All pharmaceutical drugs, or even ‘natural’ remedies, have side effect. The same thing is true of software code — it is job security for programers.
My recent code in Google Apps Script is a good example. It did what I had set out to have it do but there were side effects. I have always started each post with <span style="firstLetter">A</span> that combined with some css code results in a big colored letter.
However when I run my Script it changes that to: <span style=“firstLetter”>A</span> and that then shows a regular sized black letter. You can not have HTML in an external Style sheet or in Style coding on an HTML page. The Style will not work!
It took me a good part of the day yesterday to discover this side effect and the remedy. I found that <span style=firstLetter>A</span> works and there are no "s that get changed. The same thing is true for links. I have always shown links as <a href="http://edwardfrey.com">Click Me</a> but <a href=http://edwardfrey.com>Click Me</a> works just as well without the " " — no side effects so far.
It was cold this morning with the forecast low to be 40° I dressed for it to be in the 30s. I was slightly overdressed, never put on my gloves, because the low was only 43.3°. Yesterday afternoon when we were on our walk the temperature dropped 10° during a 10 minute span. It felt like we had walked into cold storage. Then around sundown we got rain with the local station reporting 0.24". I think Autumn has made its appearance with the highs for today and tomorrow to be in the 60s then the 70s for the remainder of the 10 day forecast.
Let the sanctions begin. If Nord Stream 2 requires European sanctions then I can not help but think that this deal for the Russian vaccine is not going to generate some against Mexico.
The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) says it has signed a deal with a Mexican pharmaceutical company, Landsteiner Scientific, to deliver 32 million doses of the Russian-made Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine.
The fund said on September 9 that shipments to Mexico will begin in November, pending approval by Mexican medical regulators.-Russian Fund Says Mexico To Get 32 Million Russian COVID-19 Vaccine Doses, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
10 September
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
I make a mistake this morning thinking that the weather guessers would forecast the low this morning to be lower than actual like they did yesterday. Wrong! They expected it to be in the 40s and we got 35.6° as the low.
I was underdressed without gloves and needed them. Had on my windbreaker and needed the wool shirt/jacket. The 10 day forecast shows all the lows to be in the 40s but they are not going to sucker me again. Overdressed is better and underdresses.
I had the distiller running all through the night and the added heat is now welcome. I was complaining about it adding heat before — capricious, no - fickle, perhaps.
I don’t plan on doing much today. I have another Javascript project in mind. Or find some other way to do what I want with Google Docs or my HTML pages on the host server. Just in the thinking research stage now; a dangerous time.
I will be reading more of the nonfiction book and or the novel that I have on Kindle Fire but that is a given for every day. Maybe get back to work on the cabinet painting project now that it has cooled down and the converter project has been completed.
11 September
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: September 11, 1932
The low this morning was 37.8° which was warmer than yesterday but not in the 40s as forecast. The weather guessers are not giving up however they still think that the lows during the next 10 days will all be in the 40s or even a couple days at 50. I was better dressed for the low this morning but was still cold.
Continue to study Google Apps Script for Docs as well as Javascript. The two ‘languages’ are similar but different enough that I am probably getting myself more confused by looking into both of them at the same time. I think I’ll concentrate on the Google Apps Script. If I even learn how to use it then learning Javascript could be easier.
CNN posted “The 37 most absurd lines from Donald Trump’s Labor Day ‘news conference’ ” with #17 being the quote shown below except for the portion that I have made bold.
“I’m not saying the military is in love with me; the soldiers are. The top people in the Pentagon probably aren’t, because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs, and make the planes, and make everything else, stay happy. But we’re getting out of the endless wars.… Let’s bring our soldiers back home.”-President Donald Trump, Labor Day speech 2020
The US dollar is now backed more and more by home mortgages that are going more and more into default. Do you think this bodes for a stronger dollar?
The Federal Reserve has snapped up $1 trillion of mortgage bonds since March, a record pace of purchasing, as the U.S. central bank tries to blunt the impact of the Covid-19 recession on American homeowners.
The Fed bought around $300 billion of the bonds in each of March and April, and since then has been buying about $100 billion a month. It now owns almost a third of bonds backed by home loans in the U.S.-Fed’s Mortgage-Buying Spree at $1 Trillion With No End in Sight, Christopher Maloney
12 September
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
Today was another shopping day but I changed the order of things. Went to the laundry first today to avoid any crowd that may form. It had me going for breakfast when I expected a crowd but there was not that much of one. A stop at Safeway was squeezed in between laundry and breakfast.
I made some progress learning Google Apps Script yesterday. Most of what I have done so far has been copying what I can find on the web and making changes to use my Docs. This has been difficult enough; it has taken me a lot of time just to reach that point.
Yesterday was the first time that I wanted to do something and was able to get the information from Google Documentation and understand it well enough to write some Script that worked. The Documentation may be good if you know how to write Google Apps Script but if you know nothing at the start it does not help much.
The weather guessers got it wrong again but they are consistent. This morning the low was 37.7° and they continue to forecast the lows to be in the 40s. Maybe more thunderstorms tomorrow but the forecast for highs in the 70s is good; the past few walks in the afternoon have been wonderful.
An article that will never be carried by the mainstream media because Bill has paid them not to.
His [Bill Gates] press bribes have paid off. During the pandemic, bought and brain-dead news outlets have treated Bill Gates as a public health expert —despite his lack of medical training or regulatory experience.
Gates also funds an army of independent fact checkers including the Poynter Institute and Gannett —which use their fact-checking platforms to “silence detractors” and to “debunk” as “false conspiracy theories” and “misinformation,” charges that Gates has championed and invested in biometric chips, vaccine identification systems, satellite surveillance, and COVID vaccines.-Press in His Pocket: Bill Gates Buys Media to Control the Messaging, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
13 September
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
The weather guesser hung in there and got it right this morning. The low was 46.9° and I could feel it as soon as we got up. Didn’t take any chances and had my wool shirt/jacket on and was glad that I did. Had my gloves with me as well but never put them on.
Now that they got it right this morning those same weather guessers are forecasting the low to be 47° for almost everyday during the next 10 days. The high temperatures will be between 72 and 79° and no chance of rain. A Chamber of Commerce forecast.
I got another Google Apps Script to work yesterday. This was a copy, paste and modify Script. It copies everything from one Google Doc then pastes it to the bottom of the text in a different Google Doc. This is another step in the direction that I want to go. One step at a time.
Will finish the novel that I have been reading on my Kindle Fire today. Then start another one and read some more of the nonfiction book that I have on there. The nonfiction book may require my reading a couple more novels while switching back and forth - it is slow reading.
President Trump’s sanctions against China and Iran are working. They have driven the two countries closer together so all of America’s enemies will be together. He has done much the same by getting China and Russia to form partnerships. If the US were to pick a fight with anyone of the three I think all three would join in the fight and Europe would stand around and hold US’s coat while it gets it butt kicked.
The decision by Iran and China to embark on what amounts to a 25-year strategic partnership has touched off a flurry of analysis and speculation around the world. The agreement – which has yet to be formalised – is set to transform Iran’s foreign policy outlook by triggering a move towards the East.
For more than a century Iranian strategists and foreign policy specialists have looked to the West – and to Europe in particular – for engagement and long-term partnerships. The agreement with China has the potential to change that.–Iran’s move towards China will have global ramifications, Mahan Abedin
14 September
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
This morning the low was in the 40s, 42.1°, but not nearly as warm as the 47 that was forecast. The weather guessers are not giving up and are sticking to their forecast of mid to upper 40s for the next week. It is only at the end of the 10 day forecast that they are expecting it to get down into the lower 40s. I’m expecting it to freeze before I leave.
I have hulled barley and oat groats cooking this morning. During the next couple days I need to get more pinto beans and garbanzos cooked to make my succotash and potage for ‘linners’. That is about all that is on the future agenda.
The reading is progressing. The Google Apps Script learning has hit the wall. Made no progress yesterday and like Edison I found a lot of things that did not work. Maybe I learned something from that; I’m not sure.
With his U.S.A. trilogy, comprising The 42nd Parallel, 1919, and The Big Money, John Dos Passos is said by many to have written the great American novel. While Fitzgerald and Hemingway were cultivating what Edmund Wilson once called their “own little corners, “ John Dos Passos was taking on the world. Counted as one of the best novels of the twentieth century by the Modern Library and by some of the finest writers working today, U.S.A. is a grand, kaleidoscopic portrait of a nation, buzzing with history and life on every page.’Neoliberalism’, or more generally liberalism, will be called into question both in the West and in the East, when its failure is recognized.
In fact ‘liberalism’ is to ‘actually existing capitalism’ what ‘socialist’ discourse was to ‘actually existing socialism’: an ideological tool designed to eliminate the analysis of real questions. ‘Liberalism’ promises everything at once: ‘efficiency’ (without defining the term), ‘democracy’, ‘peace’ and even social justice!
15 September
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
I’m not making any progress on what I wanted to use Google Apps Script or Javascript for so think I’ll give it a rest. I did download a Apps Script Docs Add-On that I think will do some of what I wanted to do. The more I looked at it what I had planned to do it would not have saved me any time or effort anyway.
I was beginning to think that the company I sent my boot to was bankrupt. They claimed that the resole would tak 3-4 weeks; it has now been about 6. However I did get an email yesterday that they would ship ‘soon’. If soon has the same meaning as 3-4 weeks then I don't expect them to arrive ‘soon’ by my definition. I have this nagging feeling that the email was simply a put-off.
I have a similar issue with my bank and a credit card charge at Ace Hardware. I disputed the charge on 18 August and have received nothing; no communication no credit - nothing!
Then there is the battery for my laptop that I ordered on 27 August 2020 and received an email on the 28th that said it would be 15-20 days until shipped because of ‘low stock’. It has now been 18 days and - nothing!
I would bet that the excuse in all these cases is: The Coronavirus.®
I think Caitlin is probably right. There will be more war no matter who becomes president during the next four years be it Trump, Biden or Harris.
In an even remotely sane world, war would be something everyone avoids with all their might and uses only as a very last resort. In a world that is dominated by an empire driven by the agenda of unipolar hegemony, wars are sought and planned for as an end in themselves, and excuses are invented to get into them.–Let’s Be Real: President Biden Would Probably Be More Hawkish Than Trump, Caitlin Johnstone
A classic paragraph by JHK from a good article. Recommended reading.
The orgy of political hysteria, insane thinking, and violence is a psychotic reaction to the collapsing techno-industrial economy — a feature of it, actually. When all familiar social and economic arrangements are threatened, people go nuts. Interestingly, the craziness actually started in the colleges and universities where ideas (the products of thinking) are supposed to be the stock-in-trade. The more pressing the practical matters of daily life became, the less intellectuals wanted to face them. So, they desperately generated a force-field of crazy counter-ideas to repel the threat, a curriculum of wishful thinking, childish utopian nostrums, and exercises in boundary-smashing. As all this moved out of the campuses (the graduation function), it infected every other corner of American endeavor, institutions, business, news media, sports, Hollywood, etc. The country is now out of its mind… echoes of France, 1793… a rhyme, not a reprise.–Convergence of Quandaries, James Howard Kunstler
16 September 2020
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
I thought I had another problem yesterday when trying to get my post ready for the host. I could not get the Script that I wrote to find and change quote marks to open. Finally decided that it was not me so it had to be them and found that Google Drive was down. So it was them!
I was having problems in the morning with the Docs Add-On that I had just installed and thought that was me as well. But it was working later in the day so it was them again! This Add-On lets me keep text that I use frequently in my postings as ‘snippets’. I don’t have to go looking in prior postings to find where I had used that same text before, copy and paste. For example the URL address for a book cover: <img src=../peregrinating/pic/0656.JPG alt= leftpic> which is now readily available and with one click all I need to do is change the JPG #. The same is true for the weekly Will Rogers articles.
I’m doing some experiments on how I put my website posting together. Always in the past I wrote it up on the HTML ‘page/file’ that is on my host. I would then copy that and put it into Docs for spell checking and recently to run the Script against it to fix the quote marks. The experiment is to do all the writing in Docs which will spell check as I type. Add a ‘snippet’ if required, fix the quote marks, copy and paste to the host page. I think it is going to make life easier.
After complaining yesterday that I have heard nothing about the laptop battery I received an email from the shop in Show Low that he had received the battery. I now have an appointment on Friday to get it installed in my Chromebook. That is going to make for a long day on Friday but I’ll be very happy to get it done.
I like this meme: The COVID vaccine should be tested on politicians and bureaucrats. If they survive, the vaccine is safe. If they don’t survive, our country is safe.
I also like this essay by the Hardscrabble Farmer. I read some of his essays in the past and then lost him for some reason; glad that I found him again. This one led me to another book to put on my To Read List.
17 September 2020
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
I have run out of excuses. Went back to the painting project and put the first coat on the first of the two doors that have been awaiting me for a couple of weeks. Need to get the second coat on it today. Maybe paint the second door during the weekend unless I can work up some excuse.
I got all my ‘linners’ cooked also. Finished up with the yellow split peas and garbanzos yesterday. That should keep me for a week or 10 days along with the succatach that I got ready on Tuesday.
An article worth reading; I quote the closing.
The hegemon is collapsing in front of our eyes and this is one of the most dangerous moments, but as I have pointed out in one of my previous comments, there is a very wise saying, I believe by SUN TZU – why disturb your enemy when it’s self-destructing. The only question is how much destruction can it wreck on the rest of us in its death throes. A very careful approach is absolutely essential now – the aim is to make this collapse more of a “controlled demolition” than to have it as a very destructive explosion in which many could be very badly hurt as a result, especially with regard to their economies, already rather shaky amid this “scamdemic”.
That is what, I believe, VVP [Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin] and Xi are now working on, very carefully. Hence the very calculated responses to numerous stupid and nasty provocations. And lots of patience.
We are indeed living in very interesting times.– Presidents that play chess, by Katerina for the Saker Blog
As the article says in the closing “think about what this is really all about: control and subservience”.
In May 2020, a CDC report stated, “In pooled analysis, we found no significant reduction in influenza transmission with the use of face masks.”
The CDC report also notes, “Disposable medical masks (also known as surgical masks) are loose-fitting devices that were designed to be worn by medical personnel to protect accidental contamination of patient wounds, and to protect the wearer against splashes or sprays of bodily fluids. There is limited evidence for their effectiveness in preventing influenza virus transmission either when worn by the infected person for source control or when worn by uninfected persons to reduce exposure. Our systematic review found no significant effect of face masks on transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza.”–CDC: ‘No Significant Reduction in Influenza Transmission with the Use of Face Masks’, The Heartland Institute
18 September 2020
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: September 18, 1932
My westside neighbor took me to the Post Office yesterday where I picked up mail that had been forwarded. I had it sent General Delivery and as soon as the mail clerk saw me in the window she went and got the package. I don’t need to show identification any more.
Today I went to Show Low and had the battery installed that was delivered to Mountain Mobile Computer Services. The wait was about about an hour after they opened at 9:00 which I did out in their parking lot. I had arrived in town at about 7:45 and went to Aunt Nancy’s Family Restaurant which claimed to open at 8:00.
When they did not open by 8:05 I left and drove to Denny’s. They had a line waiting to be seated with everyone masked up. Drove to Mountain Mobile and made my usual breakfast in Desperado while waiting for them to open.
To get back to Springerville I took AZ 260 with a stop at Wells Fargo to buy some quarters and got a live person to see if they could help me with a Credit Card dispute. All my previous attempts have been using their Message Center which is a replicate of the VA’s Secure Messaging. However Wells relies more on robot responses. After a half hour I was told to take it up with the store that charged me. I think they screwed up and the chances that they will admit they did are rather slim so I guess I eat the charge and just be glad it was not more.
Stopped at Safeway on my way back though Springerville and got groceries. Then soon after getting back to the Park the host brought me my boots that had been shipped from NuShoes. I think I am through with orders and receiving packages for the next couple of weeks.
The Empire is dying and nothing can save it, things have gone way too far to ever return to the bad old days of US world hegemony. Furthermore, I have the greatest doubts about Trump or his supporters being able to successfully defeat Dem/BLM/Antifa. … The USA of 2020 in so many ways reminds me of Russia in February 1917: the ruling classes were drunk on their ideological dogmas and never realized that the revolution they so much wanted would end up killing most of them. This is exactly what the US ruling classes are doing: they are acting like a parasite who cannot understand that by killing its host it will also kill itself. The likes of Pelosi very much remind me of Kerensky, the man who first destroyed the 1000 year old Russian monarchy and who then proceeded to replace it with kind of totally dysfunctional “masonic democracy” which only lasted 8 months until the Bolsheviks finally seized power and restored law and order (albeit in a viciously ruthless manner).
The US political system is both non-viable and non-reformable. No matter what happens next, the US as we knew it will collapse this winter, PCR [Paul Craig Roberts} is right. The only questions remaining are:
What will replace it? and
How long (and painful) will the transition to a new USA be?
–Reconsidering the Presidential Election , The Saker
19 September 2020
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
I did all of our morning and afternoon walks starting 27 July thru 18 September, in my Jim Green ‘Vellies’. Those are the desert/ankle boots that I got from South Africa.
A total of 269 miles in the 54 days and it looks to me that the soles are less worn than the Gumlite Vibram were with the same miles on them. I had the Chippewa boot resoled using Vibram # 132 Montagna which is claimed to be made from a more durable material.
I agree with Clarissa: “It’s not that important. “
I’m saying, very specifically, that it doesn’t matter much who the next Supreme Court justice is. It’s an issue of considerable interest but it’s not even remotely as important as the politicians and the media manage to convince us every single time.–Repeat After Me , ClarissaI also agree with Twain: “I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.” – Mark Twain.
A true meme: “We live in a world where Nancy Pelosi’s hairdresser has better video surveillance than Jeffery Epstein’s jail cell. “
20 September 2020
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
I hope that the scientists are right. They found the reason why bad things “come in threes”: they simply don’t. Humans look for patterns in random data in a way to extract order from disorder.
I have had three electrical problems occur in the past 24 hours. First, the range hood light and fan did not work again when I got back from Show Low. They worked while I was there and had my breakfast but when back in the Park they no longer worked. Second, one of my wall lamps was coming loose and about to fall off the wall. Third, my laptop was working fine when we went for our afternoon walk yesterday but could not open anything when we got back. It was connected to the MIFI but no web pages would open. Shut everything down after messing with it for far too long and when I tried again about a half hour later all my devices worked.
The low has been in the 50s for the past 4 days with a 10 day forecast that they will continue to be there with highs in the mid to upper 70s. What more could I want?
I won’t get that second cabinet door painted this weekend. But I should have all the hinges Brassoed today and have the first door hung. Second door, maybe tomorrow.
I am not an important man and I hold no degrees, no office. My take on what is happening today is not one shared by many and I share it only with those I know and trust. There is no way to know what part of what we are being told is true and what part is false. The story has changed so often and with so little thought to its reason or logic that no rational being could be expected to understand what is actually happening, but I can see the effects even from my little farm on the edge of the mountain. The virus is real, I do not contest that point, but the reaction has been a form of collective madness only read about in stories from the Dark Ages. Our observations are a modern day Decameron, a human comedy. The effects of these insane decisions have barely been spoken about above a whisper, but they are’t debatable. We’ve been sent to our rooms by our betters for something we didn’t do, told to maintain our distance from one another while they monkey hum one another on podiums nightly, standing so close to one another they can tell what each one had for breakfast. They have destroyed our economy, shuttered virtually every privately owned business, repealed our right to peaceably assemble, to worship, to marry in front of witnesses, to mourn our dead. They have pointed at an unseen pathogen as an excuse to attack the population, to threaten them with imprisonment and fines for simple going outdoors, where sunshine, God’s natural disinfectant would do us the most good. They’ve separated friends and families, emptied the retirement accounts of tens of millions, left families destitute, seen to the greatest layoffs in our history, told us what we can buy or sell and for how much and when, while they hand out trillions- yes, trillions of dollars right back to the very people who just wrecked the entire economic system so they can be made whole, and then promised a mess of pottage to the ones they stole everything from. All of the lies that we’ve been sold for the past quarter of a century have been exposed for everyone to see, borders that we were assured could never be controlled are suddenly shut up tighter than a well diggers ass. Criminals who prey on the weak have been released en masse onto our streets, while the military has begun to be deployed in order to control the law abiding citizens who simply want to buy some food for their families. We’ve been told that all of the sacrifices Americans made in the service of a global economy was worth $1,200, but that we should stop expecting anything else in the future as supply lines collapse under the weight of their callous indifference and hubris.–The Cobra Effect, Hardscrabble Farmer
21 September 2020
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
The second cabinet door now has its first coat of paint. Maybe get the second coat applied tomorrow, have the brass cleaned up and hang it by the end of the week. Or maybe not but certainly before I leave here. HA
I have that to do as well as finish the book that I’m currently reading. Read some more of the nonfiction book and get started on the long list of To Read Books that are in the queue.
A USA article says “Lawmakers remain deadlocked over a measure to provide another round of $1,200 checks to most households and more aid to struggling small businesses and unemployed Americans”.
We have already stolen several trillion dollars from future generations of Americans so far this year to fund “stimulus packages”, and so a lot of people figure that it probably wouldn’t make that much of a difference if we stole several trillion more to fund another one.…
[I]t is exceedingly clear that what is ahead of us is going to be much, much worse than what we have already experienced.
But most Americans don’t want to hear that.
Most of us just want to cling to the belief that someday we will wake up and everything will have returned to normal.
That may happen in fairy tales, but this is real life, and real life simply does not work that way.–2020 Has Been A “Nightmare Year” For America, And The Economic Fallout Is Just Getting Started , Michael Snyder
All of which is to say that the Democratic Party has other things to worry about besides who will replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court. That may be hard to believe but it’s how things are now after four years of implacable, seditious perfidy from the party. A week ago, all the talk was of the Democrat’s election coup plan, as publicized stupidly by the so-called Transition Integrity Project. Nice try. What if all those mail-in ballots sent out recently have Joe Biden’s name on them and it turns out that he is no longer a candidate? Hmmmm.… No doubt the recipients were so eager to fill them in and send them out that there’s no going back on that scam. Apparently, a Biden withdrawal was not one of the scenarios scrimmaged out in the Transition Integrity Project’s “war game.” What? then A do-over?–Swamp Thang, James Howard Kunstler
Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.–Alexis de Tocqueville
22 September 2020
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
The weather gurus were wrong again. The low temperatures are not going to stay in the 50s. This morning was 45.8° and I should have been wearing my possum fur headband/ear warmers. The forecasters have seen the error of their ways and now some of the lows are expected to be 49.
I have the distiller running again and I’m thinking about painting a second coat on the second cabinet door. Probably can find some excuse to not do it today. I’ll read some of the nonfiction book that I have started and will then begin a new novel. That seems like a good excuse to not paint. HA
The Victorious Opposition is the third and final book in the American Empire alternate history series by Harry Turtledove, and the seventh in the Southern Victory series of books. The Settling Accounts tetralogy will complete the Victory series but he has written a lot more so I will be reading his books for a long time to come.
Aside from Woke Capitalism, my belief is that when the Democrats consolidate power in the years to come, they will move to pacify the country by implementing a social credit system that will punish dissenters and reward conformists — and progressives will cheer, because the anti-liberal principles of cancel culture (e.g., no tolerance for disagreement) are already normative within the institutions they control.–The Coming Social Credit System, Rod Dreher
Frankly, if the US economy collapses, it won’t matter who controls Congress, or the Senate, or the White House. It won’t matter whether we have 8 or 9 SCOTUS judges in the short to medium term. We’ll be too busy trying to survive to worry about such niceties. If you don’t know where your next meal is coming from; if you’ve been kicked out of your home because you can’t pay the rent or cover your mortgage; if your vehicle has been repossessed because you’ve fallen behind on the payments…all those are real, in-your-face emergencies. Even Antifa’s and BLM’s antics will matter a whole lot less - because they’ll be trying to survive, too.
We need to get our priorities straight. The economy should be at or very near the top of our list right now.–Don’t let SCOTUS issues obscure the real economic threat to America , Peter Grant
23 September 2020
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
I fought the good fight but finally succumbed and got the second coat of paint on that second cabinet door. I’ll try to get all the brass hardware cleaned up today and hang it.
The other thing that I must do is get out there and dump the holding tanks. Even more pressing is the need to add fresh water. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to fill the distiller with a gallon of water this morning.
The picture painted [MSM Headlines] is that a Trump “win” is really a coup, and he will have to be driven from office. Note that the expected coup is defined as Trump’s re-election, not the coup gamed by TIP against Trump. Note also that these presstitutes are so stupid that it does not occur to them that with the CIA, Pentagon, FBI, and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) all against Trump, who is there to help him with his coup?
Clearly, the Democrats and the presstitutes regard the American public as too dumbshit to notice that Trump cannot pull off a coup all by himself.
In 41 days we are going to know if the American public can be brainwashed by the presstitutes into seeing Trump’s reelection as a coup against democracy.–Trump’s Likely November Reelection Is Already Discredited as a Coup Against Democracy, Paul Craig Roberts
Why are we, the American electorate, putting up with this? Why are we accepting as valid the candidacy of any politician who is clearly not in full control of himself? Why are we tolerating what de facto amounts to elder abuse?
And why are the mainstream media not all asking this question, aloud, and demanding answers? Their complicity in this conspiracy of silence is deafening.
The Emperor-candidate has no clothes. Mr. Biden is visibly not capable of running even his campaign, let alone the United States. His handlers are making all the running, and we’re sitting back and letting them get away with it. As long as we do, we are all complicit in this elder abuse.
Shame on us all.–Let’s call the Biden campaign what it is: ELDER ABUSE, Peter Grant
24 September 2020
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
This was a shopping day with most of it spent waiting for Patches to get a bath. Started with breakfast at Booga Red’s and then arrived at the groomer about 30 minutes early for her appointment. They were open and took her in.
I sat in their parking lot until she had her bath and we then proceeded to Safeway. Nothing special there except I needed to get a new plastic bucket. Yesterday when I did the holding tank dumps I dropped the one I have had for 10 years and it cracked like an egg shell.
I got this posting started while waiting for Patches but did not finish it until we were back at the Park. I had no luck finding a bucket at Safeway but there was a Dollar Tree store next door that had one that was slightly smaller than the old one but will work. Last stop was at the Post Office where I mailed a contract back to my UPS Store.
There is now another reason for the United States to impose more sanctions against Russia. The Russians are providing the drug to South American countries and to Saudia Arabia; those countries are expected to buy from the USA. They may get sanctioned as well for disobedience.
The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, and ChemRar Group have agreed to supply Avifavir, the world’s first registered favipiravir-based drug against coronavirus and Russia’s first drug approved for the treatment of COVID-19, to 17 countries.…
Avifavir will be delivered to Argentina, Bulgaria, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Kuwait, Panama, Paraguay, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia,South Africa, UAE and Uruguay.…
In addition to proven efficacy and safety Avifavir is also three to four times cheaper than Remdesivir.–Russia to supply Avifavir drug to 17 nations for coronavirus treatment, Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury
25 September 2020
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: September 25, 1932After getting back to the Park yesterday I cooked some pinto beans then added the hominy and squash for more succotash. Within the next few days I’ll cook up another pottage of yellow split peas and garbanzos. That will give me ‘linners’ until I’m at my next camp.
I also finished painting the lower kitchen cabinets. The picture on the left is what they look like now the one on the right was shown previously on 5 August 2020 when I was about halfway finished. I think I’ll next paint the lower cabinets at the far left in the picture on the left but not until I get to my next camp and buy some more base color paint.
I was hoping that my electrical problems were behind me. It was not to be. Yesterday my laptop suddenly lost its battery icon and when I tried a battery test no battery could be found. The laptop still works but only with the charger plugged in. I have contacted the shop in Show Low and have received a reply but no solution for the problem. Maybe later today, but most likely another trip to Show Low.
All of this is to say Barrett’s charismatic faith looks entirely normal to millions of people around the world — and on American voter rolls. “It’s been wild to see some of the same folks talking about [the] importance of [the] Hispanic vote just tweet the most casually antagonistic stuff about charismatic/Pentecostal Faith, “ wrote Michael Wear, who directed faith outreach for former President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign. “They may not know they’re disparaging anyone but right-wing Republicans, but, uh, other people do. “ And some of those other people might not vote for a party screaming that their (or their mom’s) faith is freaky.–The wrong way to attack Amy Coney Barrett, Bonnie Kristian
26 September 2020
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
Yesterday morning when I was ready to turn on my laptop I plugged in the power supply first. The laptop opened fine which I expected but was surprised that the battery icon reappeared and the battery was charging. After about 45 minutes the icon disappeared again and I don’t think the battery was being charged.
This morning I am experiencing the same thing but the battery has more of a charge in it than yesterday morning and is being charged again today. Is over 50 % as I post this.
I also tapped all the 12v wire connections at the new RV power converter and that caused the hood light and hood fan to work once more. There is a loose wire in there amongst what looks like a mass of spaghetti.
Cooked hulled barley and oat groats yesterday. Have garbanzos on the stove this morning and will have the yellow split peas and garbanzo pottage ready by the end of today. That is the start of my moving preparations which I need to be doing.
A mind-boggling new sequel to Infernal Devices to celebrate thirty years of Steampunk.Some time after the events of Fiendish Schemes, George Dower finds himself a widower, of sorts. On her deathbed, Miss McThane entrusts Dower with a small, ticking clockwork box. The box is mysteriously linked to her.
But the Progressive critique adds a moral basis: the American people’s indulgence of their preferences —private ease and comfort, focus on families, religious observance, patriotism —has made for every secular sinThis paragraph is from a long essay that contains multiple quotable passages. I have selected only one to whet your desire to read it in its entirety. imaginable: racism, sexism, greed, etc. Because most Americans are racist, sexist, un-appreciative of real virtue or refinement (these are somehow rolled together), because these Americans resist knuckling under to their betters, America is a sick society that needs to be punished and to have its noxious freedoms reformed.–Revolution 2020, Angelo Codevilla
If anyone doubts that the country that many of us loved so much is almost totally gone, just look at what is going on all around the U.S. right now. People are actually being arrested and put in prison for not wearing masks. If authorities are willing to get this extreme during a relatively minor pandemic, what are they going to do to us when a true national emergency breaks out? I certainly don’t have anything against anyone that wants to wear a mask, and I certainly don’t have a problem with officials that want to encourage everyone to wear one. But when it gets to a point where the police are actively hunting for “non-conformers” and are dragging them off to prison in handcuffs, that should tell all of us that we aren’t living in a free country anymore.–Arresting People For Not Wearing Masks Is Another Giant Step Toward Total Tyranny, Michael Snyder
27 September 2020
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
The laptop battery continues to act in a very mysterious way. Yesterday morning it continued to charge for about 45 minutes and then the icon disappeared again but I think it was continuing to charge.
The reason for thinking that was at about 11:15 the icon appeared again and the battery was 70% full. When I last saw it, around 7:45 it was 50% full. By noon the ion was still showing and said that the battery was FULL. But then later in the day the icon disappeared again.
When I opened it this morning I did it with the charger power and the icon appeared showing a Full Battery. The power light is also blue which indicates a full battery. How long will the icon last today? About the same as the past two days — 45 minutes.
I also had a sick dog on my hands. Patches threw up all her breakfast and acted like she was going to throw up some more but finally laid down and went to sleep until time for our afternoon walk. She wanted to go walk and acted normal so she got to lick the yogurt container and got half rations for dinner. She seemed fine this morning and ate a full serving for breakfast. So far so good.
Thus, acting in the name of public health and social justice, the ruling class effectively repealed the Constitution and the laws of the United States. Freedom of religion? Filling churches and synagogues, celebrating baptisms, weddings and funerals can now land you in jail. Freedom of speech? On the contrary. You may now be punished for failing to declare what is ordered of you, even if you don’t believe it, or even for failing to attend a political re-education session or by not showing due deference therein. Freedom of assembly? Only for those on the ruling class side. Property? If you forcibly defend it against the mob, Democrat-controlled states will jail you. They will also prosecute you for defending your life.An additional quote from the very long essay that is a must read. None of this was done by laws passed by elected representatives. All was done by all manner of officials’ and bureaucrats’ edicts, and discretionary actions supported by the media and corporations. Leaderless, the American people by and large obeyed a regime that had become an oligarchy served by thousands of its clients, eager to hurt opponents financially, socially, and physically.–Revolution 2020, Angelo Codevilla
28 September 2020
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
I turned on the laptop this morning using the battery. It opened fine and the battery icon was showing Full. I did a battery test and it reported just slightly less than 100% and was discharging at a rate of 0.26% during a 60 second test.
The plan is to use the battery until the icon disappears again or the battery level reaches 50% — whichever comes first. I’ll then plug in the charger and see how long it takes to get the battery back to full.
I got the Will Rogers weekly articles prepared for another month yesterday. Also cleaned the bathroom but put off doing the floors until today. When I get that done I might vacuum Desperado’s cab and wash windows; if not today then tomorrow. That will finish up most of my month end chores and have me ready for moving day.
I will not quote from this article, The Covid Deception, by Paul Craig Roberts just recommend it as something to read.
29 September 2020
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
The battery icon was still there yesterday morning and was at 100% but it seemed to get stuck reporting 66% full at 9:15. I did a battery test and it showed that there was NO discharge during a 30 second test.
Plugged in the charger at ~11:15 and it did not appear to be charging. Another battery test with the charger plugged in gave me ‘Warnings’ and said that no battery could be found. The icon was still showing however. I shut down before going on our afternoon walk, kept the charger connected and when reopened the icon was missing and I don’t think the battery was charging. I’m going to try the same thing this morning and see if I get the same results.
This eighth entry in New York Times bestselling author Bernard Cornwell’s epic Saxon Tales series brings to life the harrowing and turbulent tale of a nation torn apart by sectarian and religious strife, a political struggle dominated by dynastic rivalries, and the remarkable strength that elevates some characters above their time.“My name is Uhtred. I am the son of Uhtred, who was the son of Uhtred . …”
Britain, early tenth century AD: a time of change. There are new raids by the Vikings from Ireland, and turmoil among the Saxons over the leadership of Mercia. A younger generation is taking over.
Æthelred, the ruler of Mercia, is dying, leaving no legitimate heir. The West Saxons want their king, but Uhtred has long supported Æthelflaed, sister to King Edward of Wessex and widow of Æthelred. Widely loved and respected, Æthelflaed has all the makings of a leader —but could Saxon warriors ever accept a woman as their ruler? The stage is set for rivals to fight for the empty throne.
Uhtred is still suffering from the wounds he received in battle. To recover his strength he needs to find the sword that caused the injury, but lost amid the battle’s blood and mud, how could it be traced and who among the Vikings or Saxons might be holding it?
In the end it is one champion, one hero, who will destroy the new Viking threat to Mercia and ultimately decide the fate of England.–Book promo @ goodread.com
This is what ‘freedom’ has come to mean in the United States of 2020. At the same time the mainstream media is propagandizing how authoritarian and totalitarian China and Russia are and that they should become more like the United States. We are living in an Orwellian country.
All day long, I’ll silence, censor and edit myself. I’ll pretend not to hear questions, not to notice statements, not to have opinions, and not to have a voice. I’m pretty much at a limit of how much literal and metaphoric muzzling I can take, and it’s only a little over a month before we collectively decide whether we enthusiastically embrace a lot more muzzling.–Trump’s Taxes , Clarissa
Two memes:
Fifty million kids being schooled in the homes of gun owners, and not one school shooting.
It wasn’t the guns after all!
I was planning a trip to Australia and was asked if I had a criminal record. I replied, “I wasn’t aware that you still needed one. “
30 September 2020
Springerville RV
Springerville, AZ
Yesterday the battery icon became stuck at 56% at 9:50 and when the charger was plugged in at 10:30 I saw no evidence that it was charging. The same result as on the 28th.
Today looks like it is going to be a repeat of the past few days. I guess this will be my New Normal. It charges up to 100% within a couple of hours after I shut it down but does not appear to charge while I have the laptop connected to power and using it.
I now have everything done that I need to do before getting on the road tomorrow morning. The posting tomorrow will happen late in the day after I get to the new camp. Although I should finish the nonfiction book that I have been reading and I’ll get that part of the post written today.
Today was the last shopping trip this season in Springerville with breakfast at Booga Red’s. The Safeway here now has a huge sign at the entrance that requires masks to enter the store. Safeway set that as a policy about a month ago but the store here has generally ignored the requirement.
It does not say what kind of mask so I am using a bandanna as always. It also does not say how the mask must be worn — about half the people do NOT cover their nose. Masks are arguably not effective against Coronavirus® but are certainly not if the nose is not covered. The entire wearing of masks is nothing more than virtue signaling and displaying obedience.
I am sure that most people still expect that we will return to normal at some point, but that seems very unlikely. Masks are the progressive niqab and they are here to stay, like social distancing and the continued move to atomization and isolation. Much like the four pillars of Stockholm Syndrome we have been separated, placed in a constant state of fear, promised safety if we comply, and told that we are all in this together by the people responsible for our predicament. Is it possible that this is an accident or an unforeseen coincidence that just happens to coincide with long planned efforts to modify our society for the advantage of a small set of people who behave however they like while we comply with their demands? Who knows, but more importantly, who cares at this point? The motives mean little when the outcomes are as dystopian as the ones we are currently experiencing. Like the abuser who laments that it’s for our own good as he piles on the perversions, it is we who suffer regardless.–This Masquerade, Hardscrabble Farmer