May
1 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
We were up at our usual time but I could have slept in for another 30 minutes. That is I could have if I had not been awake for over a half hour and if I didn’t have Patches wanting me to get up.
It was a short drive today, only 29 miles to our new camp. The route: AZ82, AZ90, I-10 (1mile), 4th St (in Benson) & AZ80.
Breakfast was at the Horseshoe Cafe in Benson; one of two restaurants that are open early there. I’ll try the other one in a few days when I go shopping. Even with that stop I arrived at the Park about a half hour before they opened. A small crowd formed as soon as they did open, all of them having come to pick up their mail.
The spaces here are rather narrow. Graveled roads and spaces, somewhat, with a concrete slab that is more in the way than being an added feature. Some of the spaces have some trees for shade - mine does not. For now I have open spaces on each side of me. If they fill in I’ll be cramped.
That is about all there is to say about the move and the new camp. Today I’ll finish reading the novel on Fire 8 and start one of two nonfiction books that I have on there. Will download another novel so I have that to read when I want a beak from the nonfiction.
2 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
I had a very difficult time getting the Cross FTP software to transfer the book cover image. Finally found the ‘right’ combination of places to check and click on. I don’t know that I can repeat that next time or not. Not sure what I did.
Claudius Bombarnac, a reporter, is assigned by the Twentieth Century to cover the travels of the Grand Transasiatic Railway which runs between Uzun Ada, Turkestan and Peking, China. Accompanying him on this journey is an interesting collection of characters, including one who is trying to beat the round the world record and another who is a stowaway.We walked along AZ80 both north and south from the Park yesterday afternoon and this morning. Going north the shoulder is not as wide and the posted speed limit is higher. There are side streets that might offer some variety but everyone has at least one dog with some of them willing and able to come out of their yard. I’ll probably stay on AZ80 and go farther south than north.
Started the distiller again and was not surprised to find that the water here has the same mineral content as at Quail Ridge. I am in the same valley so expected that. Continue to use Lime Away and let it soak for a couple of hours and the boiler clean up is not too bad. I must do it after every gallon of water however or the buildup is too much.
It is going to be HOT here before I leave but I expected that as well. The high yesterday was 88.5° and it was 70 by 8:00 this morning. The weather guessers think it will be cooler today but I doubt it. They are also forecasting a high of 94 next Thursday; we could get up to very near 100. I’ll just try to stay cool and do some reading, maybe draw some pixel art.
3 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
The high yesterday was 89.1°but the weather guessers think it will only reach 81 today. I think it will be higher than that but if the breeze continues it will be good. They have increased their guess to 95 on Thursday; even more of a chance that it will reach 100.
I drew another dog pixel art piece yesterday. This one is slightly bigger at 40x40 pixels. I’ll now increase the side of the drawing that I attempt and bump up the number of colors involved. Find a subject other than dogs as well.
Tomorrow will be a shopping day at a different store. That is always an adventure, trying to find everything that is on my list. I have plenty of time however because I will be stopping at the computer repair shop and he does not open until 10:00.
Today will be just the same routine.
…[O]ne should note that, about a dozen years ago, “trade war” was still simply a descriptive phrase, today it has really become a tool in the hands of many countries for waging non-military warfare. It can be used with particularly great skill in the hands of the Americans, who have perfected it to a fine art. The comprehensive eight-year embargo against Iraq that was initiated by the U.S. is the most classic textbook example in this regard. — Unrestricted Warfare: China’s Master Plan to Destroy America, Qiao Liang & Wang Xiangsui
A very good article.
Consider how Covid Collectivism requires its believers to participate in the new sacraments of wearing masks, social distancing, and mandatory vaccination — all against an invisible killer; except this particular devil has a survival rate of 99.74%. Furthermore, The New Faith comes complete with own religious vestments (masks, gloves, face shields), liturgy (statements of faith like “Masks Up”, “Together Apart”, and “Build Back Better”, hand-washing, and needles/penetration), hierarchy (medical facilities, CDC, WHO), and collectivist theology (the young must be injected to protect the old).
Modern physicians have become the new witch doctors. Doctor’s offices, pharmacies, and hospitals are the new churches, mosques, and synagogues. And political chieftains, along with the experts at the CDC and WHO, are the new bishops, imams, rabbis, priests, cardinals, and deacons who, by default, yield their authority to the royalty presiding over central banking.
In other words: Although the human immune system has successfully protected populations against every virus since time began, the new faith requires people now be injected with experimental synthetic pharmaceuticals in order to protect from a virus that has the same mortality rate as the flu for those under 50.–The Great Reset: An Ancient Faith Continuously Renamed , Doug “Uncola” Lynn
4 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
Breakfast was at the Farmhouse Restaurant the second place in town that opens early. The veggie omelet was good but a little more expensive than most of the places where I go. The biggest downer is parking for a RV the size of Desperado or bigger. I’ll go back.
It was just a few blocks from there to Safeway. In fact it is only a few blocks to everything there is for me in Benson. The shopping took longer, which I expected. They didn’t have any non-dairy yogurt in the large containers. The small containers were almost $2 each — no way. So I’ll be cooking up tapioca while I am here.
Then I went to the computer repair shop expecting to have an hour wait. But he opened at 9:00 — the web has the wrong hours. Left my Chromebook with him and got some help with changing the screen brightness on the Raspberry.
I changed my walking route again this morning. It is still out and back along AZ80 but shortened the distance where the shoulder is narrower and the speed limit is higher. I will also avoid a loose dog that we encountered yesterday afternoon. The available walking routes here are not the best; not too bad now but would not be good during the dark winter months. A lot more traffic on AZ80 than what I thought there would be.
The only thing that I now have on my agenda is try to stay cool. There is the regular routine of course plus some pixel art which is become part of the routine again.
5 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
It was hot yesterday with a high of 87.8° and no breeze. I had the A/C running for the first time but will most likely have it working for the next 3 days. They are all forecast to be in the 90s with Thursday now expected to reach 97.
I’m going to try to beat the heat and give Patches a break. We did a three mile walk this morning while it was cool and traffic was lighter. This afternoon we will do two miles. That is the plan for the next few days that are to be 90° or more.
The United States now has a debt-to GDP ratio that is considerably higher than was Greece’s ratio in 2010. That was when it received a bailout from the International Monetary Fund to avoid defaulting on its obligations. But, you can take comfort that all is well when a Senior Vice President at the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank has this to say.
There is presumably a limit to how much the market is willing or able to absorb in the way of Treasury securities, for a given price level (or inflation rate) and a given structure of interest rates. However, no one really knows how high the debt-to-GDP ratio can get. We can only know once we get there.–Does the National Debt Matter? , David Andolfatto
Americans tend to pursue unlimited objectives as they expand their national power. But this is a tendency which in the end will lead to tragedy. A company which has limited resources but which is nevertheless keen to take on unlimited responsibilities is headed for only one possible outcome, and that is bankruptcy. — Unrestricted Warfare: China’s Master Plan to Destroy America by Qiao Liang & Wang Xiangsui.
Who says the Chinese only copy and are not creative. Case in point:
A man in China bought a first-class, fully refundable plane ticket, which gave him access to the airport’s VIP lounge where high-rolling travelers can dine for free. The man rescheduled his first-class ticket 300 times in one year to enjoy free meals. When the airline figured out his scheme and confronted him, he cancelled the ticket and got a full refund.
6 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
The high yesterday was 92.8° with a forecast of 96 today that Weather Underground claims will be Nearly The Same. That may be “Nearly” but an increase of three degrees means it will be HOTTER when you’re out walking. The mornings are great however, it is another time of the year when the difference between the high and low approaches 50 degrees. Getting hot very early today, I think it may be over that 96 forecast.
I’m doing more cooking since there is no non-dairy yogurt. The tapioca works but needs cooking. I also finished a pot of succotash yesterday and finished distilling water. That will cut down on the added heat inside Desperado.
The shorter afternoon walks are also good for both man and beast. I’ll be trying to stay cool and do more reading on Fire 8 with some pixel art drawing from time to time as a break in the reading. Not much going on.
A sobering and fascinating study on war in the modern era, Unrestricted Warfare carefully explores strategies that militarily and politically disadvantaged nations might take in order to successfully attack a geopolitical super-power like the United States. American military doctrine is typically led by technology; a new class of weapon or vehicle is developed, which allows or encourages an adjustment in strategy. Military strategists Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui argue that this dynamic is a crucial weakness in the American military, and that this blind spot with regard to alternative forms [of] warfare could be effectively exploited by enemies. Unrestricted Warfare concerns the many ways in which this might occur, and, in turn, suggests what the United States might do to defend itself.Reddit Investors posted selected inflation measures year-over-year. But No Worries the official inflation rate is still within the Federal Reserve’s guidelines.
Steel +145%
Lumber +126%
Oil +80%
Soybeans +71%
Corn_69%
Copper +50%
Silver +38%
Cotton +35%
Coffee +34%
Wheat +25%
Cattle +21%
FAO Food Index +25%
Money Supply Up +24%
Stock Market +23%
Bitcoin +470%
Home Values + 8%
Hourly Wages +5%
SS & Stimulus -0.7%*
I do like puns!
So if a cow doesn't produce milk, is it a milk dud or an udder failure?
7 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: May 7, 1933
It was not that long ago that I was writing that I would go out, dump tanks and add water when it warmed up. Today I went out there right after I finished breakfast and did that chore before it got too hot.
Yesterday was hot but felt much cooler when we were on our walk. That was brought about by some cloud shade and a breeze. Even when it is 100 degrees if you can get in some shade and have a breeze it is not too bad — it is a dry heat. HA
Today is forecast to be over 90 again but then tomorrow the experts think it will cool down into the upper 80s. I’ll still be running the A/C some, probably from the time we get back from our walk until sundown.
Maybe finish the novel I have been reading and get started on another nonfiction book that I downloaded last month. No cooking today which is a change from what I have been doing. Just our usual routine.
8 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
I am now reasonably sure that the Amazon prepaid shipping label was delivered to the Willcox, AZ address where I originally had the Fire 10 delivered.
However, neither Amazon, UPS or my UPS Store have said anything about the Willcox address although it is shown on one of the Amazon documents that talks about getting the shipping label. I have sent an email to Cattle Rest RV Park asking them if they have the label. If they do I’ll go get it. If not then I’ll put paid to this sorry event and tell my UPS Store to trash the package.
The latest pixel art drawing that I have done is a purple flower.
There are 5-6 of these with the same leaves just different flower colors. I’m going to see if I can easily change the flower colors and then have an idea to show them all in a group — maybe.
A History of the Future is the third thrilling novel in Kunstler’s “World Made By Hand” series, an exploration of family and morality as played out in the small town of Union Grove.Following the catastrophes of the twenty-first century—the pandemics, the environmental disaster, the end of oil, the ensuing chaos—people are doing whatever they can to get by and pursuing a simpler and sometimes happier existence. In little Union Grove in upstate New York, the townspeople are preparing for Christmas. Without the consumerist shopping frenzy that dogged the holidays of the previous age, the season has become a time to focus on family and loved ones. It is a stormy Christmas Eve when Robert Earle’s son Daniel arrives back from his two years of sojourning throughout what is left of the United States. He collapses from exhaustion and illness, but as he recovers tells the story of the break-up of the nation into three uneasy independent regions and his journey into the dark heart of the New Foxfire Republic centered in Tennessee and led by the female evangelical despot, Loving Morrow. In the background, Union Grove has been shocked by the Christmas Eve double murder by a young mother, in the throes of illness, of her husband and infant son. Town magistrate Stephen Bullock is in a hanging mood.
A History of the Future is attention-grabbing and provocative, but also lyrical, tender, and comic—a vision of a future of America that is becoming more and more convincing and perhaps even desirable with each passing day.–Book promo @ goodread.com
I suggest that you read these remarks at the meeting of the UN Security Council and compare them to what you hear coming from the elite in Washington.
9 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
The high yesterday was only 86° with a wind blowing. It felt great after the past few days in the 90s.
Weather Underground is forecasting an 89 high for today and then claims it will be COOLER than yesterday. Whoever is writing those WARMER/COOLER notices need to read the forecast. I think we will be back in the 90s most days for the rest of the month.
That idea about just changing the flower colors was a good one but the second flower that I chose to draw also changes some of the leaf colors. I’ll draw them anyway and then see if I can put them together as a bouquet.
I’ll be trying to stay cool. Tomorrow is another shopping day plus a stop at the computer repair shop to see if the Chromebook is worth fixing. If not I will then be without a laptop, or a tablet that was serving as a laptop (the late Fire10). I have a replacement selected if both of those go to the computer graveyard.
10 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
Is it me or does everyone have a problem getting good service anymore. I told the computer repair shop that I would be in this morning. Opening hours are 9:00 am. I arrived early and then sat outside the shop at 9:00; left at 9:15 because he had not opened yet.
Prior to that disappointing stop I had a good breakfast at the Horseshoe Cafe. Then a quick gathering of groceries at Safeway. No non-dairy yogurt, I didn’t expect any. So when I got back to the Park I started a pot of tapioca. It is in the Thermal Cooker now and will be ready by dessert time after ‘linner’ today.
It is going to be hot again today but that is going to be true for the rest of the month. Something for me to look forward to — cooler at the next camp.
This red flower is the second of five flowers that I plan on drawing as pixel art. Today I did some positioning using html. I have a different idea for creating the bouquet.11 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
There is nothing happening here of any note. The weather has become repetitive; hot afternoons and cool mornings. We are starting to get some afternoon cloud build up that sometimes provides some cloud shade. If that happens and there is a breeze then it is very nice even in the hot afternoons.
Received an email from my computer shop that said he had been sick all weekend and yesterday morning. Did not provide me with a status report on the Chromebook fix. I suspect he has done nothing.
The prepaid shipping label by Amazon saga has just about run its course. I have not received a reply to repeated emails sent to Cattle Rest RV in Willcox asking if they are holding the label. I think the UPS driver delivered it to them and they returned it but will not tell me that. I’ll be sending an email to my UPS Store in Sierra Vista telling them to dispose of the package.
A new study links drinking more coffee to a longer lifespan. That is great; I’m gonna be immortal.
12 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
I had anticipated a very do nothing day yesterday. However, I finally got a reply from Cattle Rest RV Park and they did have the Amazon prepaid shipping label.
I promptly secured everything and hit the road for Willcox. From there I could have backtracked to Benson and then to Sierra Vista but hate that kind of a drive. So I went through Kansas Settlement, first time in a lot of years, Elfredia & Tombstone to get to my UPS Store.
They put the label on the package, I picked up a couple pieces of junk mail and a couple magazines and drove back to St. David. A total of about 180 miles or 25-30 more than the backtrack route.
Patches and I were both tired from that drive and we got back late in the afternoon. Just did a short potty walk which we both thought was enough.
This morning we did our usual walk in a cool 44° at the beginning that warmed up to 54 by the time we finished. I got some hulled barley and oat groats cooking in the Thermal Cooker by the time I had breakfast. When that is done I need to get some more tapioca cooked by tomorrow for more dessert.
The computer repair shop sent me an email that said he had made a temporary fix to the power jack on the Chromebook and had ordered a new jack. I’m hoping that will fix the disappearing battery icon and dicey charging issue. Maybe have him replace the keyboard but think I’m running out of time.
Ordered more coffee from Old Bisbee Roasters. This will be the first delivery at a Park; all the previous deliveries have been to my UPS Store. Will see how it goes. Getting mail when “homless” is the most difficult part of living the full time RV lifestyle.
I did go online and eliminated the Willcox shipping address from my Amazon account. I wish I had known to do that before this shipping label saga got underway. Although I don't know if it would have made any difference or not.
You will not read about these developments that are happening in China in any of the US mainstream media. Fred has seen some of them and writes about what the mainstream media will not. A recommended read.
First, America increasingly relies on strong-arm tactics instead of competence. For example, in the de facto 5G competition, Washington cannot offer Europe a better product at a better price, so it forbids European countries to buy from China. The US cannot compete with China in manufacturing, so it resorts to a trade war. The US cannot make the crucial EUV lithography equipment to make advanced semiconductors, as neither can China, but it can forbid ASML, the Dutch company, from selling to China. Similarly, the US cannot compete with Russia in the price of natural gas to Europe, so by means of sanctions it seeks to keep Europe from buying from Russia. This is not reassuring.
Second, the Chinese are a commercial people, agile, fast to market, cutthroat, known for this throughout Asia. America is a bureaucratized military empire, torpid by comparison. —America Makes Aircraft Carriers, China Makes Money— A Dolorous Imbalance, Fred Reed
13 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
I’m going to try and have a do nothing day again today. Nothing is planned so maybe I’ll get it done.
There is the nonfiction book on Fire 8 that needs to be read; maybe finish it tomorrow. It has been a slow read. There is also that third pixel art flower that is being drawn in GIMP. Those are not planned activities however, that is just my usual routine.
I picked up some honey from a roadside stand yesterday. I walk past it every afternoon and stop for a minute to talk to the fellow that sits there selling pistachios, pecans and honey. Considerably more expensive than Safeway honey but I had some this morning and it was very good. Good enough for the extra cost? I’m not sure; I need to have some more of it.
14 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: May 14, 1933
It is hot and probably going to stay that way until I leave here. The high yesterday was 96.3° with an expected 92 for today which Weather Underground thinks is MUCH COOLER. No breeze this morning and it feels much hotter than the reported 84.
I was out there dumping holding tanks and adding water. It was not too bad but inside Desperado with no wind is hot anytime it gets over 80. I was also able to pick up the package of coffee that was mailed to the Park PO Box. It required two trips to the Park office but I got it.
Ordered some walnut pieces that will be delivered by UPS, maybe, next week. It will be interesting to see if that works out as well as using USPS. I had no choice, the shipper made that decision.
I would have finished reading the non-fiction book yesterday if I didn’t spend so much time on the flower arrangements shown below. I’ll finish it today and start reading another book on archive.org where I borrow the book an hour at a time. I downloaded it to Aldiko on Fire 8 but it was too difficult to read there. The online version is better.
Yesterday, I finished the third flower which is the yellow one. It then took me almost as long to learn how to position them as you see here. However, I learned a lot in the process and now think I’ll be able to put together a five flower bouquet.
15 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
I don’t think I’ll be doing much today.
I have started the distiller again. It seems like I’m using more water than in the past. Maybe it is the hot weather. Finished cooking some garbonzos that will have mixed vegetables added after I get them at the store tomorrow. That should provide ‘linners’ for over a week since I have some succotash prepared as well.
We got some rain yesterday. What I would call a trace; just enough to spot the dust on Desperado. The high temperature was 95° which was over the expected 92 and certainly not MUCH COOLER than the day before. The weather guessers think that today will only be 92 and say it will be COOLER.
Prisoners of the American Dream is Mike Davis’s brilliant exegesis of a persistent and major analytical problem for Marxist historians and political economists: 16 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
I think there were some changes made to the Vivaldi browser in the background a few days ago. The combination of keys that I was using to go to the top of page or bottom of page were no longer working on web pages.
I found that I could create my own combination of keys in the Vivaldi Settings and now have Alt+↑ for top of the page and Alt+↓ for the bottom. To just move up or down the page a screen height at a time I can use Ctl+↑ or ↓. The ↑ and ↓ keys move one line at a time.
However, when typing on a Google Doc I need to use Ctl+Fin+← to go to the top and Ctl+Fin+→ to go to the bottom. Fin+↑ and Fin+↓ will step up and down the page; ↑ and ↓ still move one line at a time.
Confusing? Yes, but it will become a habit within a few weeks. Just like I now type ’ which give me a curly ’ quote mark rather than a ' which is a single prime mark that the keyboard provides.
Went to town this morning and had breakfast at the Farmhouse Restaurant. They had a bigger crowd than the last time I was there, maybe because it is Sunday. Then just up the street is Safeway where I did a quick gathering of items for another week.
There is a nice breeze this morning which is forecast to become strong winds by this afternoon. The high for today to be 89° with the high tomorrow only 81 and Tuesday at 83. I would like that to happen but have my doubts.
Everything to be rather routine for the rest of today.
17 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
I felt cold this morning when we started our walk. A bit of exercise warmed me up but I knew it was colder than it has been. The low this morning was 42.8°. It hasn’t been that low since the beginning of this month. The expected high for today is 80 and tomorrow to be 84 then back up into the 90s.
California is getting the attention of the mainstream media about their drought conditions. It is bad there but much worse in Nevada and Arizona. With the mass exodus from California into the Valley of the Sun I wonder if anyone is giving a thought to where the water is going to come from to fill all those new swimming pools. Oh horrors! They may be forced to make a choice — swimming pool water or let the farmers have some to grow food.
I’ll just try and stay cool and continue reading the two books that I have started. Maybe finish distilling more water by tomorrow. The park temporarily lost power a couple days ago so it is best to keep a supply of drinking water available.
18 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
This morning was another cool one with the low at 46°. But that will end tomorrow with the lows back in the 50s and lower 60s with the highs in the upper 80s and lower 90s.
I’m looking forward to the cool weather in the high country of my next camp. Also looking forward to finding someplace to camp during the months of Nov, Dec ’20 & Jan ’21. I have been considering a couple places but not very excited about either of them.
The distillation chore will be completed today. I’ll get some tapioca cooked for more desserts. Those two things and more online Fire 8 book reading are all that I have planned.
Truer words!
I do not believe for a half-second the declarations that ‘nothing will be like it was before’, we will not wake up after the lockdown in a new world. It will be the same, just a bit worse. The way this epidemic has panned out is remarkably normal. — Michel Houellebecq on French public radioWhen I was young I was poor. But after decades of hard work, I’m no longer young.
19 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
The package from Mount Hope that had walnut pieces was on the UPS truck on the 17th. However, the driver found the Park office closed and did not attempt to find my space. He did not leave the package.
So yesterday I sat on a bench in front of the Park office until the UPS truck arrived. Yesterday’s driver said that the driver on the 17th was new and that he would talk to him. I got the package.
I’ll clean up the distiller this morning and put it away for about ten days. That is going to have me trying to get more water distilled right around the time I’ll be moving to my next camp but so be it. That and maybe finish reading the book that I have on Fire 8. The one that I’m reading online is going to take some more time.
Gasoline and toilet paper aren’t the only things that have been in short supply this year… Prescription drug shortages continue to plague people who rely on those drugs to live a normal, healthy life. One man we spoke to said he couldn’t get his stomach medicine until July. If you found yourself in a situation like this, you can check the FDA’s drug shortage tracking system. Right now there are currently about 120 drugs listed as having a shortage.–Plagued by drug shortages? There’s an online tool for that, Lauren Sweeney
20 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
There is nothing on my To Do List for today. I should be able to get it all done.
I have one more package to be delivered here at this Park. This one is coming from Canada but is always mailed USPS from New York. The downside to that is the delay between the order date and when the package is taken to New York. It will be 10 days from order date to expected delivery.
Started reading another book on Fire 8 and also downloaded another one. The online reading at Internet Archive is also coming along slowly. That leaves me a little time to do some more pixel art drawing on flower number four.
Celebrated Victorian bounder, cad, and lecher, Sir Harry Flashman, V.C., returns to play his (reluctant) part in the Battle of Little Bighorn in the seventh volume of the critically acclaimed Flashman Papers. What was Harry Flashman doing on the slopes of Little Bighorn, caught between the gallant remnant of Custer’s 7th Cavalry and the attack of Sitting Bull’s braves?
21 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: May 21, 1933
I thought it was hotter than what was reported for the high yesterday and cut a half mile off our walk. It was only 93° and I thought it was over 95.
Then this morning we stepped out into a light rain or maybe a hard sprinkle. Patches was shaking it off and I was getting a little wet so called a retreat after walking a long potty walk. It stopped by the time we got back to Desperado but looked like it could start again soon.
These past couple of days I had a GIMP crash, did a Restore and everything seemed to be fine. Yesterday it finally registered with me that the colors in my pallet for the fourth pixel art flower were wrong and I had been adding the wrong colors. I was about half finished and at least half of that was wrong. Discarded it all and will start over either today or tomorrow.
The decline and imminent fall of America’s global empire is the most important geopolitical fact in today’s world. It is also the least discussed. Politicians, generals, diplomats, and intelligence analysts around the world are already wrestling with the immense challenges posed by America’s accelerating downfall, and trying to position themselves and their countries to prosper — or at least to survive — in the impending chaos of a post-American world. Outside the corridors of power, by contrast, few people anywhere seem to be aware of the tsunami of change that is about to break over their heads … but it may not be accidental that when an empire loses one enemy, the usual response is to go shopping for another.– Prologue, Decline and Fall: The End of Empire and the Future of Democracy in 21st Century America by John Michael Greer
22 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
Shopping day plus some other things. First was breakfast at the Horseshoe Cafe then just up the street to a laundromat. There was a second one around the counter from the Cafe but the one I went to is in the same complex/strip mall as Safeway.
That was the third stop on my itinerary for the day. Just another grocery gathering there. In that same complex was an Ace Hardware. I took a full can of paint in there and had them give it a shaking in their paint shaking machine. Maybe I’ now open it and start painting — maybe.
The last stop before going back to the Park was at a RV Park in Benson. There I made a reservation for the months of Nov, Dec ’21 & Jan ’22. I’m a little unsure of the Park but the only way to be sure is to live there.
For decades now, profits from the financial industry and speculation have eclipsed profits from the manufacture of goods — before the 2008 crash, it bears remembering, General Motors made far more profit from its financing arm than it did from building cars — and that reshaping of the economy seems to be approaching its logical endpoint, the point at which it’s no longer profitable for the industrial economy to make anything at all. – Decline and Fall: The End of Empire and the Future of Democracy in 21st Century America by John Michael Greer
I have not quoted from the article, The View from Abroad by Fred Reed but it is one of his better ones. Strongly recommend that you read it.
23 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
I got busy doing chores this morning and forgot all about posting for the day. Easy to forget when you have nothing to say.
The chores were dumping holding tanks again. Adding water was the more important part however. The water pump was starting to pump some air as well as water.
I then decided that it was a good time to start working on the Will Rogers weekly articles for another month. This was the first time I tried doing it with the Raspberry computer. That required additional time as I moved along the learning curve. I haven’t finished all the articles for another month but made a good start. Maybe finish later today or tomorrow.
Those two things and cooking some hulled barley and oat groats are about all I’ll do today. There is the regular reading routine but haven't started to redo the pixel art flower yet.
As the United States faces the end of its overseas empire and the drastic contraction of an economy long inflated by imperial tribute, in other words, it faces a massive difficulty much closer to home: a proud and populous nation on its southern border, with a vibrant culture but disintegrating political institutions, emergent warbands of the classic type, a large demographic presence inside US borders, and a burning sense of resentment directed squarely at the United States. This is not a recipe for a peaceful imperial decline. … I would encourage those readers who live in the dryland West, especially those within a state or so of the southern border, to keep an eye open for the first tentative raids, and perhaps to read up on what happened to those parts of the Roman Empire most directly exposed to warband incursions in the twilight years of Roman rule. –Decline and Fall: The End of Empire and the Future of Democracy in 21st Century America by John Michael Greer
24 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
This morning the low was 37.6° which is the coldest morning that I have had in May. I checked the temperatures at my next camp and it was below freezing there this morning. I’ll be wanting some of that coolness by the time I leave here; the forecast is for it to be HOT from now until the end of the month.
Staying cool, reading and getting my month end chores taken care of is all that I’ll be doing.
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.Although he was writing nearly a century ago, William Butler Yeats could just as easily be describing the United States today. The decline and fall of America’s global empire is the central feature of today’s geopolitical landscape, and the nature of our response to it will determine much of our future trajectory, with implications that reach far beyond the limits of one nation’s borders.
Decline and Fall: The End of Empire and the Future of Democracy in 21st Century Americachallenges the conventional wisdom of empire. Using a wealth of historical examples combined with groundbreaking original analysis, author John Michael Greer:
By shifting the conversation from whether today’s American empire should survive to whether it can survive, and arguing persuasively that the answer to the latter question is “no,” Decline and Fall makes an invaluable contribution to the body of speculative post-industrial literature. This book is a must-read for anyone concerned about the state of the Union, or who believes that the time has come to reinvent the American Dream.
When will the worst inflation be hitting America? Williams predicts, “I am looking down the road, and in early 2022, I am looking for something close to a hyperinflationary circumstance and effectively a collapsed economy.”–Inflation & Implosion — Hyperinflation in 2022 — John Williams , Greg Hunter
According to Greek Mythology, Chiron was a half horse, half human doctor. This made him the Centaur for Disease Control.
25 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
The only thing that I have on my To Do List for today is to get a 3x5 card prepared for my route to the next camp. I don’t really need the card for the route but want notes about where to stop for breakfast and for gas.
I have some tapioca in the Thermal Cooker to be used for desserts the next few days. That took only a few minutes this morning. The rest of my time will be spent reading the online book at archive.org and the nonfiction book on Fire 8.
I could find only a couple of reviews for this book. At a Dos Passos web page it says that he started writing this book while he was at Harvard and then reworked it for seven years before it was published. Why it was published remains a question in my mind. I have nothing good to say about it.I downloaded a copy of it from archive.org which was done using OCR which is never very good. This time it was not too bad but whoever did the copy failed to include about 20 pages. To make up for that they copied some other 20 pages twice.
I do not recommend this book but IF you want to read it I found that there is a copy at Gutenberg which will be a much better copy.
Some good advice from Timon when you relate it to what we have been told by the medical experts of today regarding Coronavirus®.
Trust not the physician; his antidotes are poison, and he slays more than you rob. —Timon of Athens, Shakespeare.This quote was included in a good article On Medicine and Dr. Knock by Jimmie Moglia for the Saker Blog
26 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
It feels a little cooler this morning with a breeze. Yesterday morning was dead calm and got hot quickly. The high yesterday was 94.5° with a forecast of the same today. Then even hotter starting Friday and through the weekend. My next camp is forecasting highs in the upper 70s to lower 80s — I’m ready for that.
Nothing except the usual planned for today. We are doing afternoon walks that are a half mile shorter with these hotter days. That is different but necessary. Received the package from Canada yesterday; later than USPS claimed it would be per Tracking but I got it.
The British Empire collapsed in part because they thought that more battleships were what displayed their power. The United States Empire is following in their footsteps with aircraft carriers being the symbol used to promote power around the world.
In a conventional clash on the seas, be that on the high seas, in remote sea zones, or in a littoral of Russia, the U.S. Navy’s surface fleet will simply not survive.… A two Zircon or Kinzhal missile salvo guarantees at least one leaker against any type of a surface target would get through, and would be sufficient to destroy a target of the modern destroyer size. As a carrier-centric navy the U.S. Navy is not a force which can fight and win against Russia and China in their littorals. A number of U.S. top officials, including General John E. Hyten and the Government Accountability Office were explicit when stating “China and Russia are pursuing hypersonic weapons because their speed, altitude, and maneuverability may defeat most missile defense systems, and they may be used to improve long-range conventional and nuclear strike capabilities. There are no existing countermeasures.”… General Hyten went further, admitting to the U.S. Senate Armed Service Committee that the only defense against such weapons is a nuclear deterrent.–The (Real) Revolution in Military Affairs by Andrei Martyanov
27 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
Weather Underground is not working again. I assume they are making improvements once more. When they do that I usually can not get any reports for a week or 10 days. The current temperature at 8:00 was near 80° with a dead calm wind so it was already hot in Desperado.
I’ll just try and stay cold and maybe finish reading the online book at archive.org. If not today then maybe tomorrow. There is a novel on Fire 8 that I have in process also.
Shopping and some other running around tomorrow will cut into that reading time. I need to stop at the computer repair shop and see what my Chromebook status is. I also want to stop at a dentist office here and inquire about them doing a cleaning next December. If they can not/will not do it I have an appointment in Sierra Vista that I will keep and drive the extra distance to it.
The liberal world order, a euphemism for American global hegemony, is crumbling at an accelerating pace. While its collapse is tangible, the outcome of such a collapse remains a matter of speculation and public debate. The US is desperately seeking to preserve the status quo, which rests primarily upon recognition of its military supremacy. For millennia, warfare has been a driving force behind changes in the geopolitical status of power configurations (whether of peoples, states or empires), and it remains so today. Accordingly, short of actual warfare, the assessment (modeling) of relative military power plays an inordinate role in the determination of national status. Models of emerging changes in military capability range from relatively simple to extremely complex ones. Viewing the evolution of the current system of international relations outside the framework of actual, rather than propaganda-driven, military capabilities is not only useless, it is dangerous since states’ mistaken assessment of their own and other states’ military power can lead to misadventures and catastrophic mistakes. 28 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: May 28, 1933
The first stop in town this morning was at Adolfo’s Taco Shop for breakfast. I happened to drive past it last week and found that they open early so wanted to give it a try. They did not offer Huevos a la Mexicana on their menu but were able to cook one up for me. It is not the best Mexican restaurant that I have been to but probably most traditional i.e. like one in Mexico.
It is just a little hole in the wall in the same strip mall as Safeway. That was my next stop where I stocked up for another week. Last week was the first time I had been in a grocery store, since March 2020, that did not require the wearing of a mask. All the store staff remained masked last week but about half the customers were unmasked. Today was about the same with a few of the staff also going unmasked and perhaps more of the customers.
Just down the street and next door to the Farmhouse Restaurant was the dentist office where I wanted to try and get a cleaning appointment. They were very accommodating, no masks required and I have a December appointment for a cleaning..
Last stop was at the computer repair shop. The Chromebook charging issue has been fixed — so the shop owner claims. I left it with him to replace the keyboard and check out two of the USB ports. He will then send it to my next camp when it is ready using the laptop case that my old Toshiba that I bought in Japan had been in. The Toshiba I gave to him to do with as he wished — recycle of use for parts (although the parts are obsolete).
I received an email from Amazon that says they are replacing my Fire 10. A new one has been shipped and I think it will be delivered to Sierra Vista. I was afraid they would ship it to the Willcox address again and it would be a big problem to get that changed. Maybe I’ll have a new Fire 10 within a couple weeks.
It is going to be HOT. It was already up to 90° at 10:30 and I turned on the A/C. No breeze, dead calm.
29 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
We had a high of 96.8° yesterday and did an afternoon walk that was half what we were doing. The forecast for today is more of the same and we will most likely do the same shorter walk.
I emailed my full mouth x–rays to the Benson dentist yesterday as I had promised. No confirmation that they received them. No confirmation that they were able to open the files and see them. Same sort of response I get from all the dentist offices and RV Parks that I contact. I’ll send them again next week and each week thereafter until I get some sort of reply.
Starting to do the month end house cleaning today. Will probably finish distilling more water before I leave here so I will have all my drinking water jugs full. That is about all that is happening. Probably finish reading the book on Fire 8 also before I leave. Have picked out another and probably download it later today.
Severin writes about 10 different hunter-gatherer societies in the main from an historical point of view, which you might expect, as the word Vanishing in the title implies. His book is not based upon primary research, but rather his academic research. Throughout, where applicable, he does make reference to anthropologists who did gain primary research of the societies.…30 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
It was cooler yesterday with a high of only 96.4°. The weather guessers think today will only reach 94 but we will probably do a shortened afternoon walk assuming they are wrong.
I have almost all the housecleaning done. Desperado’s cab windows still to be washed down to give Patches a clean slate. I can do the west side this morning but the east side is already too hot. Maybe get to it around sundown.
I should finish the novel that I have been reading on Fire 8. Downloaded the next novel onto it last night. Looking for some nonfiction; usually have some backed up awaiting time to read them but I’m caught up.
The collapse of the Soviet Union began nearly two decades of American unipolarity. During that time, U.S. leadership pursued a strategy of what international relations scholars call liberal hegemony. Steering the world’s sole superpower (thus “unipolarity”) American policymakers took the opportunity to build new international institutions and transform old ones in the name of liberalism and democracy.*This quote is from a good article that was linked in the one quoted above. Well worth reading.
But by pursuing financialized global economic interdependence and interventionism on behalf of liberal democracy, the U.S. prioritized an idealized vision of world stability over the economic welfare of its own citizens, the lives of the citizens of countries it has chosen to invade, and, increasingly clear, the security of the very international order it claimed to protect. Liberal hegemony was unable even to maintain American primacy, assisting China in becoming a strategic rival and producing instability elsewhere. The unipolar moment appears to be passing. Though America remains the preponderant power globally, China’s rise and other factors seem to signal the return of a multipolar world, perhaps in the form of what theorist Aris Roussinos calls “civilization-states.”*–American Hegemony, Now And In The Future, Micah Meadowcroft
A spectre is haunting the liberal West: the rise of the “civilisation-state”. As America’s political power wanes and its moral authority collapses, the rising challengers of Eurasia have adopted the model of the civilisation-state to distinguish themselves from a paralysed liberal order, which lurches from crisis to crisis without ever quite dying nor yet birthing a viable successor. Summarising the civilisation-state model, the political theorist Adrian Pabst observes that “in China and Russia the ruling classes reject Western liberalism and the expansion of a global market society. They define their countries as distinctive civilisations with their own unique cultural values and political institutions.” From China to India, Russia to Turkey, the great and middling powers of Eurasia are drawing ideological succour from the pre-liberal empires from which they claim descent, remoulding their non-democratic, statist political systems as a source of strength rather than weakness, and upturning the liberal-democratic triumphalism of the late 20th century.–The irresistible rise of the civilisation-state , Aris Roussinos
31 May 2021
Apache RV Park
St David, AZ
I think I’m ready to get out of here and get out of this heat. The only fly in the ointment could be paying my electric bill. The Park office is only open for three hours a day and may not be open at all today. I certainly do not want to be sitting around here until 9:00 am tomorrow.
Nothing else to do but try to stay cool and see what happens.
Franklin Roosevelt is the assistant secretary of defense. Thomas Dewey is running for president with a blunt-speaking Missourian named Harry Truman at his side. Britain holds onto its desperate alliance with the USA’s worst enemy, while a holocaust unfolds in Texas. In Harry Turtledove’s compelling, disturbing, and extraordinarily vivid reshaping of American history, a war of secession has triggered a generation of madness. The tipping point has come at last.With visionary brilliance, Harry Turtledove brings to a climactic conclusion his monumental, acclaimed drama of a nation’s tragedy and the men and women who play their roles—with valor, fear, and folly—on history’s greatest stage. — Book promo @ goodread.com
You will find a lot of links to mainstream media stories about the ‘Swift Response 21 military exercise’ but you will not find this reported. Ah yes, as President biden said "Simply stated, you are the backbone of this country, you are the backbone of the country." Too bad there is not a mind to go with that backbone.
“Workers at a sunflower oil processing factory in the village of Cheshnegirovo, located in the Plovdiv region of Bulgaria, had a close and not exactly pleasant encounter with US servicemen who entered the facility unannounced, local TV network NOVA reports.
The incident occurred on 11 May during the Swift Response 21 military exercise, which was held at a military airfield located in close proximity to the plant.
According to the media outlet, a group of US servicemen armed with assault rifles and machine guns hopped over the fence surrounding the facility and entered the factory floor. Two workers reportedly said that the soldiers ordered them to sit down, and then split into groups and swept through the building.”
Three rivers of angst flow out of Memorial Day 2021, and it is possible to imagine how they will meet later this year and join in a mighty flood of woe over the country. The first is the toxic stream of Wokery saturating just about every institution in the USA from the armed services, to the DOJ, to education both public and private, to organized sports, to the corporate C suites and, of course, to the transmission of current events in news and social media.…
Another stream of angst is the River of Covid-19. The tide has just turned on the question of where it came from, namely, the Wuhan Lab, but it’s hard to game-out both what we might do about that concerning the CCP’s role in it— plus, the roles of Dr. Fauci and our own National Institutes of Health— and whether the depraved administration of China Joe Biden can even acknowledge the facts. That is to say: the whole sorry episode looks like an act-of-war but carried out with America’s foolish willing collaboration.…
The third stream of angst is the big muddy river of economy-and-finance. For the moment, it’s the one drawing the least attention because the equity markets continue levering up-up-up reassuringly on ZIRP and the gold market goes mostly sideways, and Bitcoin dances up and down like the jester it is.–The Three Rivers of Angst, James Howard Kunstler