March
1 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
I have almost all the month end chores taken care of. Just a couple of small things that carried over into this first day of the next month. I’ll be getting some yellow split peas cooking after getting this posted. That is about all I have on the agenda for today. There is a long novel on Fire 8 that will consume much of the available time.
The Weather Underground reporting station that I have been using has gone offline. So now using the next closest station to me which reported a low of 23.9° this morning. It felt even colder but luckily there was no wind. Yesterday afternoon when we were doing our walk it was 46 with a 15mph wind that cut right through my wool shirt jacket. I am ready for winter to be over.
Tomorrow I’ll go to D & J’s again and have the cabinet above the stove hood strengthened and a couple doors added. That will complete the stove hood project. Trying to get an appointment with a window shade store in Tucson for shades in Desperado’s bedroom. They have responded to one email which is promising.
2 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
T he stove hood project is finished. I showed up at the appointed time of 8:30 and Tim got started on it around 9:30. But it is done and the cabinet above the hood looks better than what I originally had in mind.
Since I'm not getting a further response from the shade store in Tucson I asked D & J to get me a price for shades. They can probably be installed before I leave the area in May.
Tim gave me a referral to Stan Greer Millworks to do the molding that I want to cover wires. The guy I talked to there took measurements and said that they would do it with flat boards which would be cheaper than crown moulding. Maybe get a quoted price soon – I hope.
That is all I accomplished today and it took all morning and part of the afternoon to do it.
3 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
After the event filled yesterday I don’t plan on doing much today. I did download a couple more books to the Fire 8 so I have three of them on there now; two nonfiction and one fiction.
The House at Riverton is a gorgeous debut novel set in England between the wars. Perfect for fans of “Downton Abbey,” it’s the story of an aristocratic family, a house, a mysterious death, and a way of life that vanished forever, told in flashback by a woman who witnessed it all.Speaking in layman’s terms, the Russians get it. They, unlike any other people in the world, can relate to what the United States is going through right now. Russians can read the signs extremely well, while the U.S. elite not only has no experience with it, but is completely insulated from understanding it. This is America’s tragedy unfolding before our very eyes. Not only is America’s crisis systemic, but its elites are uncultured, badly educated and mesmerized by decades of their own propaganda, which in the end, they accept as a reality. – Andrei Martyanov
4 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
I have heard nothing more from either shop about window shades or molding. I guess it takes more than a couple of days to work up a price quote.
I have also not heard anything more from the computer shop that did reply to an email saying that he was having a problem installing Gallium. He said that he had a friend that was a Linux guru that was going to help him, that is the last I heard.
Not much happening here today. I’ll have a busy day tomorrow in town setting up appointments so I’ll need to rest.
This author is writing about the West’s culture and politics from a different perspective than Greer and Kunstler but has arrived at the same conclusions. Interesting!
No matter the political program of today’s leaders, more is the incontestable program. Liberalism can function only by the constant increase of available and consumable material goods, and thus with the constant expansion of nature’s conquest and mastery. No person can aspire to a position of political leadership by calling for limits and self-command.…
Taken to its logical conclusion, liberalism’s end game is unsustainable in every respect: it cannot perpetually enforce order upon a collection of autonomous individuals increasingly shorn of constitutive social norms, nor can it provide endless material growth in a world of limits. We can either elect a future of self-limitation born of the practice and experience of self-governance in local communities, or we can back inexorably into a future in which extreme license coexists with extreme oppression.–Why Liberalism Failed, Patrick Deneen
5 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: March 5, 1933
A lot of running around this morning. It all started with laundry and when that was finished it was only a few blocks to Café Olé for breakfast.
Then went to my UPS Store and picked up four packages. Next was a grocery stop at Fry’s where there was a crowd; I needed to get there before 9:00.
Then a stop at Big O Tire to get a list of services that Desperado needs per them. I won’t do everything on their list but will get some of them done. The last stop was at C A L Ranch where I got a bath appointment for Patches. It was a good thing that I did that today; the first available appointment was 14 April.
The ways in which the individualist philosophy of classical liberalism [conservative] and the statist philosophy of progressive liberalism [liberal] end up reinforcing each other often go undetected. Although conservative liberals claim to defend not only a free market but family values and federalism, the only part of the conservative agenda that has been continuously and successfully implemented during their recent political ascendance is economic liberalism, including deregulation, globalization, and the protection of titanic economic inequalities. And while progressive liberals claim to advance a shared sense of national destiny and solidarity that should decrease the advance of an individualist economy and reduce income inequality, the only part of the left’s political agenda that has triumphed has been the project of personal and especially sexual autonomy. Is it mere coincidence that both parties, despite their claims to be locked in a political death grip, mutually advance the cause of liberal autonomy and inequality?–Why Liberalism Failed, Patrick Deneen
6 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
I have had some garbonzos and big hominy cooking in the Thermal Cooker for the past 24 hours. The beans are well done but the hominy is still very ‘chewy’. Needs more cooking. In the future I’ll cook the hominy separately and add it to whatever else that I’m cooking.
Also distilling more water. To clean the mineral buildup in the boiler I bought some Lime Away and use it after every gallon of water is distilled. It still requires some scrubbing but not nearly the difficult job of getting all the minerals deposits removed. The water here is terrible.
The “Noble Lie” of liberalism is shattering because it continues to be believed and defended by those who benefit from it, while it is increasingly seen as a lie, and not an especially noble one, by the new servant class that liberalism has produced. Discontent is growing among those who are told by their leaders that their policies will benefit them, even as liberalism remains an article of ardent faith among those who ought to be best positioned to comprehend its true nature. But liberalism’s apologists regard pervasive discontent, political dysfunction, economic inequality, civic disconnection, and populist rejection as accidental problems disconnected from systemic causes, because their self-deception is generated by enormous reservoirs of self-interest in the maintenance of the present system. This divide will only widen, the crises will become more pronounced, the political duct tape and economic spray paint will increasingly fail to keep the house standing. The end of liberalism is in sight.–Why Liberalism Failed, Patrick Deneen
7 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
The low this morning was 34.2° but felt warmer than that. It warmed up quickly and was up to 50 by 7:30 with an expected high of 80 for the day. I think we are starting what Cochise County calls spring; vacillating between winter and summer with winds.
I left some Lime Away on the buildup in the distiller boiler for about four hours this morning. That made all the difference in the world, it almost cleaned up with a sponge. Very little sccouring but that would mean it would take far too long to distill 5-6 gallons of water. I need to do more experiments and see how long it takes to soften the buildup.
The batch of succotash is done. I now have some tapioka in the Thermal Cooker. The directions say to cook it in milk and cream at a simmer but my stove top does not simmer very well. I have also cut out all dairy products so it is cooking in Silk oat milk and Silk soy creamer. This is another experiment which I am trying for those times when I can not get non dairy yogurt.
Of the three dominant ideologies of the twentieth century—fascism, communism, and liberalism—only the last remains. This has created a peculiar situation in which liberalism’s proponents tend to forget that it is an ideology and not the natural end-state of human political evolution. As Patrick Deneen argues in this provocative book, liberalism is built on a foundation of contradictions: it trumpets equal rights while fosteringThis is the essence of US foreign policy in the 21st century with neocons controlling the State Department.
We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.–Karl Rove in Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W. Bush by Ron Suskind, NYTimes Magazine, Oct. 17, 2004
8 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
The low this morning was 55°. That is the warmest morning that I have had since 6 November 2020 which was an aberration much like this morning. The weather guessers think that tomorrow morning is going to be the same – I think it will be lower. Then it will probably freeze again this weekend with the forecast lows in the lower 30s.
I cooked the tapioca using the directions on the package but that was for pudding and I left a lot of ingredients out. It was too much liquid so I overcooked the tapioca to remove some of that excess. It tastes good and mixed with berries it looks terrible but I’ll eat some of it today and see if the experiment was a success.
Plan on going to town tomorrow morning and get Desperado some service at Big O. Tires rotated, oil changed and a tune up is what I have in mind. A lot of waiting is what I’ll be doing.
The United States is not “perceived” as an aggressive nation: It is one. In international affairs, the US has been responsible for unleashing a host of wars, all of them based on false justifications. This very threat inflation algorithm has become a trade mark of the United States in the 20th and (especially) 21st centuries, antecedent and/or supplementary to its casus bellis. The US has a “stellar” record to back these “perceptions”.…
It is a very schizophrenic policy requiring a constant reconciliation of opposites: If one claims itself to be almost omnipotent militarily, as the US does non-stop, it is really difficult to prove that one is also and simultaneously very vulnerable. In some psychiatric sense it is very close to the more specific Russophrenia phenomenon, where Russia is simultaneously about to collapse and about to overtake the US, and the combined West.–Losing Military Supremacy The Myopia Of American Strategic Planning, Andrei Martyanov
9 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
I was wrong, we did get another warm morning with the low at 55.6°. Light winds so it was a very good walk. By the time I started back from town the wind was blowing 25-35mph with expected gusts of over 45.
The breakfast stop on the way to town was a Sunny D’s. When I got to Big O there almost no waiting although it seemed to take the guy forever to ‘check’ me in. He typed a novel, or at least a short story, on his computer console. They got everything done that I wanted except a tuneup.
The tune up on a Ford V10 includes new spark plugs which is a serious undertaking. They almost need to remove the engine and then disassemble it to get to the spark plugs. I’ll put that off for a few more miles and years.
So-called multicultural societies do not work well, if at all. They never did, it is a cold hard historic fact. The contemporary United States is an exhibit of this truism, inexorably following in the steps of the Soviet Union. The United States is currently undergoing the phase of a relatively non-violent Balkanization, where non-territorial issues related to race and gender nonetheless are most strongly expressed territorially.
This process is relatively non-violent for now, but the attack on American Europeanism, due to sometimes justified historic grievances and present inequalities, only grows in intensity. The new race- and gender-based agenda and grievances culture has slowly but surely displaced an old left whose main focus were jobs and wages for the majority of working Americans, be they white, black or any other race or gender. The old left is gone today, being supplanted with what Steve Sailer calls the “Democrats’ coalition of fringes”—a combination of interest groups, also known as social justice warriors, associated with the Democratic Party and vying for resources and influence in shaping the future of the United States.–Losing Military Supremacy The Myopia Of American Strategic Planning, Andrei Martyanov
10 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
The past couple of morning lows at 55° just made this mornings 34.2° feel that much colder. It was also below the expected 38 which did not surprise me. More colder mornings for the next week with gusty winds most of the days. Spring in Cochise County!
I got an email quote from Stan Greer Millworks for the molding project. Told them that I accepted the quote and tell me when to be there to have the molding installed.
Have not heard from the computer repair shop in a week after receiving an email that he was having trouble and a friend that was a Linux guru was going to help him. Sent an email this morning giving him two more weeks, if he wanted to try some more, and then I wanted the Chromebook back - converted or not.
Marytanov explains why and how the US armed forces have lost the military supremacy they thought they once had and how Russia, which supposedly had been defeated in the Cold War, succeeded not only in catching up with USA, but actually surpassing it in many key domains such as long range cruise missiles, diesel-electric submarines, air defenses, electronic warfare, air superiority and many others. Andrei Martyanov’s book is an absolute ‘must read’ for any person wanting to understand the reality of modern warfare and super-power competition.While exceptionalism is not unique to America, the intensity of their conviction and its global ramifications are. This view of its exceptionalism has led the US to grossly misinterpret—sometimes deliberately—the causative factors of key events of the past two centuries. Accordingly, the wrong conclusions have been derived, and very wrong lessons learned. Nowhere has this been more manifest than in American military thought and its actual application of military power. Time after time the American military has failed to match lofty declarations about its superiority, producing instead a mediocre record of military accomplishments. Starting from the Korean War the United States hasn’t won a single war against a technologically inferior, but mentally tough enemy. The technological dimension of American “strategy” has completely overshadowed any concern with the social, cultural, operational and even tactical requirements of military (and political) conflict. With a new Cold War with Russia emerging, the United States enters a new period of geopolitical turbulence completely unprepared in any meaningful way—intellectually, economically, militarily or culturally—to face a reality which was hidden for the last 70+ years behind the curtain of never-ending Chalabi moments and a strategic delusion concerning Russia, whose history the US viewed through a Solzhenitsified caricature kept alive by a powerful neocon lobby, which even today dominates US policy makers’ minds. Martyanov’s former Soviet military background enables deep insight into the fundamental issues of warfare and military power as a function of national power—assessed correctly, not through the lens of Wall Street “economic” indices and a FIRE economy, but through the numbers of enclosed technological cycles and culture, much of which has been shaped in Russia by continental warfare and which is practically absent in the US.–Book promo goodreads.com
11 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
Tody was a regular shopping day with a couple extra stops. Breakfast was at the Landmark where I got the same thing which my regular waitress now knows what I am going to have. A quick grocery gathering at Fry’s which was not very crowded but only two checkout lanes open.
The wait was not a problem because I had to wait for Stan Greer Millworks. They sent me an email with the quote, I said to go ahead with the job but they want a deposit; after 10:00 – so I wait.
That is after stopping at D & J’s to check on the bedroom window shades for Desperado. It has been 9 days and they have not received a quote back from the shade vendor. It looks like they will receive the shades after I leave here so the install will have to be when I return in October. IF they ever provide a quote and IF they make the shades by then. Getting window shades is as difficult as getting a kitchen countertop.
The forecast low this morning was 35° with the actual just a little below that at 34.2. I thought it would freeze so had the basement heater plugged in. The next six days are all forecast to be in the 30s so I’ll be doing the same.
Nothing much planned for those six days. Try to stay warm and not get too much dirt blown in my eyes during our afternoon walks.
12 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: March 12, 1933
I picked up an erroneous low temperature for yesterday morning. The low then was 31.5° so it was below freezing. This morning was not with the low just above at 32.9. Probably more freezing morning to come until the middle of next week.
I received an email from D & J’s late yesterday afternoon with a quote for the shades. They need a deposit and then it will be 11-12 weeks for delivery. I’ll be gone by then but will go give them the deposit and they can install the shades in October when they do the countertop. Are the shades made in China? I don't know.
The $1,400 checks will not solve individual consumers problems nor will the billions of $ sent to the individual states solve their problems. The $1.9 Trillion was just a massive giveaway of borrowed money with the intent of calming the restless ‘Deplorables’. It might work for a little while. Then there will be another $1.9 Trillion or maybe $3.8 Trillion needed — there is no end to the needy.
The federal government is one system visibly working to destroy itself with epic giveaways of money it pretends to command and the Covid-19 Stimulus bill will only accelerate its loss of credibility. A $1,400 check won’t “solve” the problem of someone a year behind on mortgage payments or rent. It sure won’t solve the problems of their creditors and landlords. And if you think shortchanging that class of people is a good idea, you’re beating a path straight to the death of credit per se, and then of our money, the dollar, which is based on credit.–Previews of Coming Attractions, James Howard Kunstler
The surest way to work up a crusade in favor of some good cause is to promise people they will have a chance of maltreating someone. To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior ‘righteous indignation’ — this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats.— Aldous Huxley, Crome Yellow
13 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
I saw nothing in the forecast about snow but that is what we got. Stepped out of Desperado into a snow flurry that had us do a short potty walk. The low temperature was 32.4° which happened about the time we got back to Desperado. It then soon quit snowing and the sun came out. Late risers will never believe that it snowed.
I finished cooking a pot of yellow split peas in the Thermal Cooker last night. Later this morning I’ll get some tapioca in the pot and let it cook in the Cooker for most of the day.
That is all I plan on doing. Maybe finish the novel I have been reading on Fire 8. If I do there is a nonfiction book on there and another novel.
Another reason for not getting the Coronavirus vaccine. Once you get it there will be more guidance on what you can and cannot do. I’m sure that the guidance will also include the punishments that will be inflicted for not complying with said guidance. It will be yet another example of America as the ‘shining city on the hill’.
Fourth, in the coming weeks, we will issue further guidance on what you can and cannot do once fully vaccinated to lessen the confusion, to keep people safe, and encourage more people to get vaccinated.–Transcript: Joe Biden delivers remarks on 1-year anniversary of pandemic
My comment about the shades for Desperado being made in China was just off the cuff. However, I have long said that Amazon and Wal*Mart were Chinese Outlet Stores. The latest market reports say that nearly half of Amazon’s top sellers are based in China. I suspect that Wal*Mart is close to that as well. I am doing what I can to avoid them both because of that and their political positions.
14 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
For those people that missed the snow flurry yesterday morning there was a good snow shower that lasted about 30 minutes at 9:30. Then some more flurries near mid-day. Just a normal spring time in Cochise County. HA
There is a lot of sun this morning and very few clouds. The low was below freezing at 30.4° but I think we may exceed the forecast high of 60.
In this stunning retelling of World War II, Harry Turtledove has created a blockbuster saga that is thrilling, troubling, and utterly compelling.It is 1943, the third summer of the new war between the Confederate States of America and the United States, a war that will turn on the deeds of ordinary soldiers, extraordinary heroes, and a colorful cast of spies, politicians, rebels, and everyday citizens.
The CSA president, Jake Featherstone, has greatly miscalculated the North’s resilience. In Ohio, where Confederate victory was once almost certain, Featherstone’s army is crumbling, and reinforcements of uninspired Mexican troops cannot stanch a Northern assault on the heartland.
The tide of war is changing, and victory seems within the grasp of the USA. Still, new fighting flares from Denver to Los Angeles.
Indeed, as the air, ground, and water burn with molten fury, new and demonic tools of killing are unleashed, and secret wars are unfolding. The U.S. government in Philadelphia has proof that the tyrannical Featherstone is murdering African Americans by the tens of thousands in a Texas gulag called Determination. And the leaders of both sides know full well that the world’s next great power will not be the one with the biggest army but the nation that wins the race against nature and science—and smashes open the power of the atom.
I do not care at all about Meghan Markle and her “Royal’s” scandal. But “Uncola” has used it well in this article to make his point.
Cultural values are all about the “feelings” today so it’s no surprise why relativism reigns. There is no logic or reason to feelings and this is why the hearts and minds of useful idiots are infinitely malleable. It is why America today has a porous southern border but a militarized zone defending the nation’s capital. It’s how musical profanity can be National Public Radio’s song of the year while Dr. Seuss children’s books are censored. It explains how no fraud was discovered in the 2020 Election in spite of all the documented evidence… how an ancient and addled swamp creature received more votes than any other American presidential candidate in history and how a U.S. vice-president was chosen for her sex and color by people who say sex and color shouldn’t matter. It also explains why Americans will eagerly accept their Covid stimulus soup in exchange for their own freedom and their children’s birthright.
Obviously, many in America have forgotten once they once knew or, worse, they forgot to learn.–Always Remember to Never Forget, Doug “Uncola” Lynn
We’ve been doing these vaccinations in America for a month. And in 30 days, we have over 40,000 adverse events reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event database…we have over 3,100 cases of anaphylactic shock, we have over 5,000 neurological reactions, which can range from headaches, to numbness and parasthesias, to headaches, to dizziness to vertigo, to feeling like you can’t feel your hands and your feet — in 30 days! And it’s been estimated that less than 10% of adverse reactions that occur are reported…–Dr. Sherri Tenpenny
15 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
Cave idus martias.
I had a visitor yesterday which is unusual. I have very few of them and when I do they are blog friends and kindred souls that live in RVs. Not antisocial mind you, but the shrinks would probably say that I have a social detachment attitude.I remember while growing up that my mother was the social one and would suggest going to visit someone. My father would say “If they want to see me they know where I live.” Most of the time we didn’t go visit and we had few visitors.
I have nothing on my To Do List for today. It looks like there will be plenty of sun and probably wind for the walk this afternoon. The forecast high to be 69° and warmer tomorrow morning than it has been; it was below freezing again this morning.
This article says nothing that the two authors have not said before but is still thoughtful reading.
In financialized capitalism, the main purpose of bank loans is to refinance existing investments, not to expand productive capacity with which to service the debt. It is not possible to grow out of debt in a financialized economy, because too much income is used for debt service. The way to deal with this problem is to write down debts.–It Is Time To Remove The Debt Barrier To Economic Growth, Michael Hudson and Paul Craig Roberts
I do love puns.
The Spaniards harvested quartz crystals in the New World and sent them by ship back to Europe. It was then that it was first determined how many quartz were in a galleon.
16 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
The low temperature this morning was in the lower 40s. That would have been very comfortable the way I was dressed if the wind had not been blowing. The cold cut through what I had on. The high for the day is not expected to be very high — maybe get up into the mid 50s with strong winds and a slight chance of rain. Not a good day for man or beast.
I grew up in an America very similar to what the author describes. There was one major difference however; in most of my school classes I was in a “white” minority. This is a good article which I recommend.
America today bears no relationship to the American world that I grew up in. Of course, today the reply will be that I grew up in “white privilege.” But actually, I grew up in a community in which people and genders had different roles, and a person was judged by performance. Performance included moral behavior. If you were a moral person who did a good job and your word was true, you were respected. Period.–I Have Outlived My Country , Paul Craig Roberts
17 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
Another shopping day with another stop at Café Olé for breakfast. Then some gas for Desperado that $2.989 with mid grade and premium well over $3. I will not be surprised if the regular grade is over $5 by this time next year.
I used up a few gallons of that expensive gas by going to D & J’s to make a deposit on the bedroom shades. I will not be here until after I leave the area so they get installed in October.
I then drove a loop through Tombstone, St. David, Benson and back to Whetstone. Saw that the Border Patrol Check Station at the intersection of AZ80 and AZ82 was closed and was being dismantled. The one on AZ 90 was also gone. I can understand why they would be removed – with open an open border you do not need them.
The low this morning was 22.6° but it has warmed up fast with an expected high of near 70. Tomorrow morning is also forecast to be a lot warmer at 39. The 10 day forecast has only two other days in the upper 30s with the rest in the 40s or even one morning to be at 51. I do hope they are right!
I’m done for the day. Back to reading my novel on Fire 8 and do an afternoon walk – that is all that remains.
18 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
I have some pinto beans on the stove this morning that will soon go into the Thermal Cooker. I’ll probably let them cook in the Thermal until the pot gets cold and hope they are done. Then add some canned hominy for more succotash. That is about all I’ll do today.
Every day that Congress passes another stimulus package or another pork-filled budget, is another day in which we reach the point where we’re issuing new debt to service the old debt.
Paying our societal Visa bill with our Mastercard and hoping no one notices.
That’s why there’s all this worry today over rising interest rates.
Rising interest rates in a healthy economy are supposed to be a sign of recovery, of the economy getting back on its feet because the demand for dollars is rising and the expected return on investments is rising as well.
But that doesn’t jibe at all with the “COVID will kill us all” narrative. Even with the promise of vaccines they won’t let go of the fear.
Now the CDC comes out and tells us we can act normally in our homes if we’ve been vaccinated, but not in public.
Do they not understand how insane they sound?–It’s the Debt, Stupid, Tom Luongo
President Biden claims that he knows President Putin. I claim that he is wrong and does not know him at all. You can not insult Putin and expect him to do what you want. As a matter of fact there are not a lot of people you can insult and expect them to do what you want. The quote below was not taken from this article but The Saker does a good job analyzing the Biden interview – a suggested read.
The US and the US leadership, in general, seeks to have certain relations with us, but only in areas that are of their own interest and only on their conditions. Although they think we are the same, we are different people. We have different genetic, cultural, and moral codes… They will have to live with that despite all the attempts to hinder our development. Regardless of sanctions and insults, they will have to live with that.— President Putin
19 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: March 19, 1933
This morning the low was 38.7° which was great. A chill in the air but I was dressed just right. It then warmed up very quickly and we may reach the 81 that is forecast to be the high. Soon I’ll be whining about it being too hot.
I’ll finish cooking the latest batch of succotash today. That and reading some of the nonfiction book that I have on the Fire 8. Probably download another novel and get started reading it as well. Just more of the same.
I wanted to read a World War I novel. Instead, I read a novel about some men who hated the army. Dos Passos would have served his audience better had he provided some detail that leads to these men hating the army. There is some complaint that all they do is go on marches, although we’re never there when they actually *do* go on marches. Yep, the army needs its men kept busy, to work as a unit, and to gain physical strength – they still do this and it still works. And, somehow, Dos Passos seemed to be of the opinion that everyone should be in charge of whatever work they wanted to do – even in the Army! – and that the officers telling them what to do are making the soldiers “slaves.” I understand that Dos Passos eventually became disabused of the utopia of communism, but he had not been so enlightened when he penned this.He seemed to want to make sure his readers could envision his scenes in color.
I did not especially like his characters, although likability isn’t a requirement for me, but the characterizations might have been better. The prose wasn’t great, but I’ve read worse and I expect he got better. If you’re looking for action, look elsewhere, because Dos Passos’ enemy in this one are the non-coms and officers. This is my first by the author, and I’ll probably try at least one more, as this is one of his earliest works. Three stars, but nearer two than four.–Customer review @ goodreads.comI thought I was alone in my opinion of this book until I found this review. This quote is just a small sample; he had to add a color adjective before almost every noun when describing a scene; it became very tiresome. I did not like the book much but like the reviewer I’ll give him another chance. They passed the leafless gardens of the Tuileries on one side, and the great inner courts of the Louvre, with their purple mansard roofs and their high chimneys on the other, and saw for a second the river, dull jade green, and the plane trees splotched with brown and cream color along the quais, before they were lost in the narrow brownish-grey streets of the old quarters.
May you live in interesting times.
It is fascinating to compare the recent Bident comments to President Putin and Putin’s response, to what is happening in Alaska between the US and China.
It cannot be a coincidence that the messaging from both Russia and China, is the same. And it is clearly, deal with us on fair terms or Go Pound Sand.
There is a seeming coordination of messaging.…
Subtext: You have no moral standing in the world any longer. Your history is brutal. You are still operating in this brutal historical context. Go pound sand as this will not be allowed any longer.
Subtext: You should not be allowed to continue with your meddling because you have no more moral standing in the eyes of anyone and your purported ‘strength’ is dissipating in your hypocrisy.–Sitrep: Message to the West : Go Pound Sand, Chris Faure for The Saker Blog
20 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
The high temperature yesterday at 80.8° was slightly above the forecast 80. For our afternoon walk there was a gentle breeze which made it great. It was hot in Desperado when we finished however. Today is forecast to be more of the same then the winds come back next week.
I got the pot of succotash cooked. Also got the distiller back in operation. To clean the boiler with Lime Away is the thing to do; apply it, let it sit for about two hours and then it is almost just a wipe to clean. All Park water does not require Lime Away but it certainly is necessary here.
This is the preface to what I would say is the second stage of a world made by hand.
In the not-distant future…
First, gasoline became scarce and expensive, and now it is simply gone. The automobile age is over. The electricity has flickered out. The computers are all down for good. The great corporations have fallen. Paper money is worthless. Two great cities have been destroyed. Epidemics have ravaged the population. The government isn’t functioning. There may be a president and he may be in Minneapolis, but it’s little more than a rumor.
The people of a little town named Union Grove, in upstate New York, endure, living very locally in a world made by hand.
The world beyond Washington County has become an unknown country.… — James Howard Kunstler
21 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
I did the holding tank dumps and added water yesterday soon after posting to this website. It was warming up fast and I wanted to get that done before it became too hot. The high for the day was 80.2° as was forecast. Cooler today and the winds will be back with us.
I’m cooking more hulled barley and oat groats today. Then tomorrow I’ll get some more tapioca ready for another dessert experiment that replaces yogurt. That is about all that that I have going on.
A new history explains how and why, as it prepared to enter World War II, the United States decided to lead the postwar world.For most of its history, the United States avoided making political and military commitments that would entangle it in European-style power politics. Then, suddenly, it conceived a new role for itself as the world’s armed superpower—and never looked back. In Tomorrow, the World, Stephen Wertheim traces America’s transformation to the crucible of World War II, especially in the months prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. As the Nazis conquered France, the architects of the nation’s new foreign policy came to believe that the United States ought to achieve primacy in international affairs forevermore.
Scholars have struggled to explain the decision to pursue global supremacy. Some deny that American elites made a willing choice, casting the United States as a reluctant power that sloughed off “isolationism” only after all potential competitors lay in ruins. Others contend that the United States had always coveted global dominance and realized its ambition at the first opportunity. Both views are wrong. As late as 1940, the small coterie of officials and experts who composed the U.S. foreign policy class either wanted British preeminence in global affairs to continue or hoped that no power would dominate. The war, however, swept away their assumptions, leading them to conclude that the United States should extend its form of law and order across the globe and back it at gunpoint. Wertheim argues that no one favored “isolationism”—a term introduced by advocates of armed supremacy in order to turn their own cause into the definition of a new “internationalism.”
We now live, Wertheim warns, in the world that these men created. A sophisticated and impassioned narrative that questions the wisdom of U.S. supremacy, Tomorrow, the World reveals the intellectual path that brought us to today’s global entanglements and endless wars.–Book pomo @ Harvard University Press (publisher)
Daylight Savings Time is a great example of how propaganda can make people believe anything. It makes as much sense as cutting 2 inches off the top of a blanket, sewing it onto the bottom and believing you now have a longer blanket.
Time is the same as money. They are both whatever a “community” agrees them to be.
There is a good article by Larry Romanoff that functions as the epilogue to his series on Bernays and Propaganda at The Saker. You want to know what propaganda has done to the people in the United States. I recommend reading it.
22 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
I was overdressed yesterday morning when the low was 48.7° and a breeze. So with the forecast being ‘more of the same’ I dressed down and was almost underdressed for the low of 41.7 and winds over 10mph this morning. Colder tomorrow and for the next few days – we are not through with winter yet.
On the agenda for today; stay warm, cook tapioca and read my latest novel. Just a usual do very little kind of day.
I have quoted the closing paragraph from a good article by JHK.
Last week’s antics featured two dazzling failures of American diplomacy under the Obama-Biden shadow government: the president’s stupid obloquies against Vladimir Putin, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s feckless negotiation with China – in which China nullified our “human rights” complaints involving the Uyghurs on account of America incessantly self-declared “systemic racism.” Coming up this week, Joe Biden’s long-delayed premiere “news conference.” Even though the “questions” are all pre-submitted and vetted, and the answers will be scrolling on a teleprompter, Mr. Biden will be working without a net. His handlers must be cross-eyed with anxiety over what might happen. Pretty soon, the game will be up. The election fraud story won’t go away against all efforts to suppress it. The shadow government will get outed as the nation sinks deeper into economic and civil disorder, and some people will have to do something.–In the Shadows of Shadowland, James Howard Kunstler
There is also an article by PCR that tells it like it is.
The United States desperately needs to learn that it is just one country. It is no longer the most powerful, … the white ethnic American population is demonized, declared to be “systemic racists” and “Trump deplorables.” In the United States the most patriotic elements of the American population are regarded by FBI director Wray, a Trump appointee, as “domestic extremists,” “enemies of democracy,” and “the greatest threat to America.”… With the largest part of the American patriotic population demonized by their own government, who is going to stand up for Washington against China, Russia, and Iran? The emotionally and mentially weak woke idiots… The transgendered freaks… The feminist… The blacks. Try to imagine such an army confronting the Russian, Chinese, and Iranian military. Not a person in the world would give odds on American success.–Does Europe Stand With Biden Against Russia?, Paul Craig Roberts
23 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
The activities in town this morning started with breakfast at the Landmark. My ‘regular’ waitress there knows what I am going to have. Probably don’t need to even order anymore, just walk in and sit down.
From there I went to Fry’s and got groceries quickly. There was only one checker open but I had less than a minute wait. There was not much of a crowd this morning. It does help to get there early.
I scorched the tapioca a little bit yesterday but saved it from burning. The watched pot needs to be closely watched. HA For this experiment I mixed the tapioca with some vanilla and a package of dark cherries. When served I add a couple of tablespoons of chopped walnuts and some honey. It does not look much more appealing than when I used berries but tastes great.
Why do I not find any of the Main Stream Media reporting on “ Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to media questions following talks with Foreign Minister of China Wang Yi, Guilin, March 23, 2021”? I would think that this is News. Note: I added the bold.
Just this one paragraph quote seems to me to be News.
We discussed our positions on the main international topics and found them similar. Moscow and Beijing stand for developing interstate relations on the principles of mutual respect and a balance of each other’s interests, justice and non-interference in others’ internal affairs. We reject zero sum political games and the illegal unilateral sanctions, which our Western colleagues have been using increasingly more often.
24 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
We starting getting rain last night around 7:30 that continued until midnight. It then started sprinkling as we stepped out for our morning walk, soon becoming a light rain which looked like it would get harder. Called a halt when Patches started shaking the water off, so did only a potty walk. Total rainfall so far reported has been 0.37" which is a lot in this semi-desert county.
I’ll be trying to do an afternoon walk, maybe inside the Park because the roads I usually walk will be muddy. Will have the Wave 6 working off and on while settling back and reading the nonfiction book on Fire 8. That is the plan for today.
In the sequel [second in the World Made By Hand series] to his novel, World Made by Hand, Kunstler expands on his vision of a post-oil society with a new novel about an America in which the electricity has flickered off, the Internet is a distant memory, and the government is little more than a rumor.In a book that is both shocking yet eerily convincing, Kunstler seamlessly weaves hot-button issues such as the decline of oil and the perils of climate change into a compelling narrative of violence, religious hysteria, innocence lost, and love found.–Book promo @ goodreads.com
Do you enjoy reading satire? If so then this posting by Caitlin is a must read.
One senior official who spoke on conditions of anonymity told NNC [National News Conglomerate. NNC: Obey] that while nobody was killed or injured by the bad thing that was done by the bad country, and that the bad thing has in fact had no discernible effect on anything anywhere that everyday Americans would be able to perceive with the naked eye, it was still a very bad thing and will almost certainly require a much more inflated military budget to deal with.…
Other sources confirmed that the US intelligence community is between “somewhat confident” and “kinda confident” in its assessment that the thing we just reported as verified fact in the preceding paragraph actually occurred.–BREAKING: Anonymous Sources Say US-Targeted Government Did An Invisible Bad Thing, Caitlin Johnstone
25 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
This last shopping trip I was able to buy some more Silk oat milk which I like better than almond milk or soy milk. The prior shopping trip there was no Silk and I bought Planet oat milk - did not like it and will buy soy milk if confronted with the same choice again.
The low was forecast to be 35° this morning and we got 34.7. I expected it to be freezing or below and was overdressed. I also had the basement heater plugged in and that was not necessary. All of the forecast morning lows for the next 10 days are in the 40s or low 50s so we may be moving out of winter at last.
Outcomes:
China availing this opportunity has conveyed that China will not accept U.S. supremacy and will not accept dictation. China will not allow any country to interfere in its domestic issues. Generally speaking, the Chinese are well-mannered, polite, submissive, and friendly people. It seems that the U.S. has crossed all the limits where China have to take a firm and blunt stand and express their point of view so clearly. It is up to the U.S. administration to analyze the Chinese response and do their homework before meeting them again.
The World has conceived well that the U.S. can not sustain its hegemony anymore. It is no longer a unipolar world, and the U.S. is no longer a unique superpower. The U.S. needs to understand the emerging geopolitics and have to accept realities. It might need to share power with other rising nations and respect them. The U.S. must keep in mind the existence of other emerging nations’ potential while making any decision.
It is an established fact that the U.S., after enjoying the global leadership role for seven decades, may not sustain this status anymore. The U.S. is on the decline and, with every passing day, may decline further. Whereas China is a rising power and, with the passage of each day, may grow further. The time is on the Chinese side. If Americans are wise, they might give up confronting China and extend cooperation to be the beneficiary of Chinese rise.–Sino-US Dialogue in Alaska: Outcomes, Zamir Awan for the Saker Blog
Americans do not understand the risks that Washington is taking with China and Russia, because the media do not explain the facts and the risks to them. Stephen Cohen, recently deceased, was perhaps America’s last academic Russian expert. He and I shared the concern that Washington’s intent to damage Russia was sowing the seeds of war. For our efforts, we were labeled “Russian dupes.” For intelligent commentary on Russia, a person turns to The Saker and Andrei Martyanov, not to university departments of Russian studies. Unfortunately for understanding, all who put truth in the way of Washington’s propaganda are dismissed as “pro-Kremlin.”
Silencing the voices of sanity is how wars come about.–Sowing Seeds Of War, Paul Craig Roberts
26 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: March 26, 1933
While on our walk yesterday I found a partial roll ($7.75) of quarters. No such luck this morning. We did have a nice 38.5° with no wind that I was dressed for correctly with the forecast being 41.
My eMail service software is provided through my web host. This morning when I checked for email I found that the software had been changed. Was very confusing. Why can not programers leave well enough alone; if it works don’ fix it
[I]ndustrial societies around the world behave as though a future of continued technological advance, economic expansion, and global socio-political integration is guaranteed, and projects that will only make sense if such a future were to happen—for example, massive expansions of airport facilities and major road systems—proceed apace, even in regions where by most measures decline has already begun. The possibility that progress may be a temporary and self-limiting phenomenon specific to brief periods in human history remains unthinkable for most people in the modern world. This is the result of the role of progress as a contemporary mythology—and as the basis for a widely accepted modern religion.–Not the Future We Ordered Peak Oil, Psychology, and the Myth of Progress, John Michael Greer
… it is a known fact that the US government has a standing policy of dishonestly weaponizing “human rights” concerns against nations like China in order to strategically undermine them while knowingly ignoring the brazen human rights violations that are being perpetrated by its allies on a regular basis. The US government does not care about the plight of the Uyghurs in China. It doesn’t care that the allegations regarding the abuse of their rights are riddled with glaring plot holes. All it cares about is undermining its chief geostrategic rival on the world stage, truth be damned.
“So I see stiff competition with China. China has an overall goal, and I don't criticize them for the goal, but they have an overall goal to become the leading country in the world, the wealthiest country in the world and the most powerful country in the world. That's not going to happen on my watch because United States is going to continue to grow and expand.”—President Biden–The Entire World Should Be Laughing At America For Pretending To Care About Muslims In China, Caitlin Johnstone
27 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
I didn’t talk to the rider other than say good morning but saw a unicycle this morning while on our walk.
Unicycles are most commonly associated with the circus, but this Superride Self-Balancing Electric Unicycle is far from a side-show. Using gyroscopes, it keeps itself steady while enabling intuitive control: simple lean forward to accelerate and back to brake. Leaning sideways to turn, and rest it on the rear kickstand when you hop off. Its 1,000-watt motor enables a top speed of 20 mph, while the 60-volt / 5.8-Ah battery charges quickly and has a range of up to 15 miles. Battery and speed info can be accessed via the LED display, and it also ships with an electronic horn and LED headlight.
The rider was having a lot of problems maintaining a straight line. The unicycle may be self balancing but the rider was not; a lot of ‘dabs’ along the winding way.
I need to get started doing month end stuff. I think I’ll do some Will Rogers weekly article preparation today then maybe household chores tomorrow. I have a VA appointment during this month end which is going to disrupt my usual routine.
For well over half a century, since the first credible warnings of petroleum depletion were raised in the 1950s, contemporary industrial civilization has been caught in a remarkable paradox: a culture more focused on problem solving than any other has repeatedly failed to deal with, or even consider, the problem most likely to bring its own history to a full stop.28 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
There is some big hominy on the stove this morning, soon to go into the Thermal Cooker. I’m cooking it alone this time to see how long it takes until done.
I have started the household chores and got the toilet and sink in the bathroom cleaned. Doing a little at a time with breaks to type up this posting. The next step is to wash the floors. After that I settle back and do more reading on Fire 8.
An early work, Rosinante blends travel, literary criticism, and a fictionalized account of Dos Passos’ travels in Spain with a friend. I’m guessing that the young E.E. Cummings was the model for the irrepressible Lyaeus, who contrasts with the more Puritan and introspective Telemachus, representing Dos Passos himself. The book doesn’t really work; the classical pseudonyms are precious and the cultural stereotyping is obnoxious.…“imperial globalism”—a political belief system that marries the market language of the 1990s with the security concerns of our post-9/11 world. In short, the neoliberal program of economic deregulation, privatization, free trade, unfettered capital movements, low taxation, and fiscal austerity has been merged with neoconservative attempts to shape the entire globe in the American image. But this aggressive projection of American power should not be mistaken for a revival of old-style nationalism. American Empire is as much part of globalization as the jihadist-globalist effort to galvanize the global umma (Muslim community of believers) into radical action or the justice-globalist attempt to build “another world.”–From the Preface: Globalisms The Great Ideological Struggle of the Twenty-First Century by Manfred B. Steger
29 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
Went to town again with laundry being the first thing on my list. From there it is a short drive to Café Olé where I got the Vegeta Omelet again with good home fries. That is my usual now when stopping there.
Then stopped at my UPS Store along the way to Fry’s and picked up a couple packages. There was a little bigger crowd at Fry’s than I like because I got there later than I like. But not too bad; in and out and back to the Park.
One of the packages had new bib overalls from Round House. Put them on soon after getting parked in the Park and I’m very pleased. They fit much better than the old Dickey bibs. They are also Made in the USA which is what I am trying to buy when avoiding Amazon – the Chinese Outlet Store.
My old bibs were too long in the legs and I rolled them up two times to create cuffs. Those cuffs then wore numerous holes where they rubbed against my boots. The crotch on the old bibs was what you expect to see the “hipsters” wearing. That was also where there was a hole worn through – time for new bib overalls.
I also started a pot of tapioca. Watched it much closer this time and didn’t scorch it. It is now in the Thermal Cooker to finish cooking and will be added to some different fruit for dessert with ‘linner’ today and the next couple of days.
I had another visitor yesterday. This was another blog friend that moved to Sierra Vista and is now moving away. The town is starting to be overrun by home buyers coming mostly from California, New York and other large cities. He could sell his house here for a tidy profit now while the market is hot and has done so. Move to another location that is not yet being overrun.
You create a bank credit in order to finance capital investment in factories. It means the production of machinery, agricultural modernization, transport infrastructure of high-speed trains, ports and all of that.
But in the United States and England, you have finance becoming something completely different. Banks don’t lend money to build factories. They don’t create money to make means of production. They make money to take over existing assets. Some 80% of bank loans are mortgage loans to transfer the ownership of real estate.
But of course, that’s what created a middle class in the United States. The middle class was able to buy its own housing. It didn’t have to pay rent to landlords or absentee owners, or to warlords and their descendants as in England and Europe. They could buy their own homes. What nobody realized is that if you borrowed the money to take a mortgage, there’s still an economic rental value. Most of it is no longer paid to the landlords. It’s paid to the banks. And so in America and Europe, the banks now play the role that landlords played a hundred years ago.–Michael Hudson:–In Quest of a Multipolar Economic World Order, Michael Hudson and Pepe Escobar
30 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
I had an 8:00 VA appointment this morning. Arrived around 7:30 and was taken in for the blood draw and pee in a cup soon after. They had two phlebotomists working which I can’t remember that they ever had before; I think they always had only one before when I went in.
Stopped at Sunny D’s on the way back to the Park and had my usual. The waitress that I have had in past years has not been there this year until today. She asked me where I have been when the question should have been where has she been.
That is all that I plan on doing today. The wind is blowing strong now so I’ll put off holding tank dumps until tomorrow — if I can.
31 March 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
Today feels like a day off so to speak. I have been into town the past couple of days and have a dental appointment there tomorrow. I also need to go to Benson to pick up my Chromebook that has been in a computer repair shop for months.
I wanted it to be converted to a Linux OS. This is claimed to be possible at a number of websites but the guy at the shop has been unable to do it. He has had some health issues which has delayed the project but I now also question his competence. What amI going to do when I get it back — I don’t know.
I’ll get this posted and then go do the holding tank dumps and add water. I also need to clean up Desperado’s cab windows. Give Patches a fresh start slobbering on them some more.