Peregrinating
2021

July

1 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
I dumped holding tanks and added water as soon as we finished our morning walk. It was cool but humid, by the standards here, so it was best to get it done early. Then washed Despearado’s cab windows right after breakfast. That finishes the month end chores.

I’ll be on my way to the VA in Tucson early tomorrow morning after doing a shorter walk. Need to stop along the way and fill Desperado with gas. I’m expecting it to be expensive since we are starting the July 4th Holiday.

I’m leaving Patches with the neighbor to pet sit again. Hope the VA does the surgery tomorrow. My right eye vision has gone from blind for all practical purposes to virtually blind. I also hope they let me drive back to pick up Patches.
leftpic J Is For Junk Economics is an A-to-Z guide that explains how the world economy really works - and who the winners and losers are. The book includes more than 400 concise and acerbic entries, several essays, and a full topic index. Expanding on Killing The Host: How Financial Parasites And Debt Destroy The Global Economy, Prof. Hudson’s new book covers contemporary terms that are misleading or poorly understood as well as many important concepts that have been abandoned — many on purpose — from the long history of political economy.

There is a lot of repetition in this book since it seems to be a compilation of previous Huhson articles. If you read this book then you can skip reading any of his previous books. He has 3-4 main points which he covers repeatedly. He makes some good points but his solutions will never be implemented unless the economy collapses. Two key concepts are Rent Theory and Debt, which explain how Unearned Income and the Financial Sector impoverish governments and populations the world over as power and riches flow upward into the hands of the few. Several additional essays provide background for key points and explore today’s uncertain political and economic environment.

To understand what’s really going on, it’s not necessary to re-invent the wheel; the major issues that guide healthy economies were known to the Ancients and were expanded upon by the classical economists of the 18th and 19th centuries, including Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, E. Peshine Smith, Simon Patten, Karl Marx, Thorstein Veblen, and others of many political stripes whose aim was to leave the brutal legacy of feudalism behind. Their ideas and principles are brought back into the spotlight here. It is hoped that this book will deconstruct today’s -value-free, - watered-down and deceptive economics that favor the wealthy, allowing the next generation to create a successful economy with proper checks and balances that will benefit everyone. This is a book you will want to refer to again and again. — Book promo @ goodreads.com
There has been massive buying interest to trade in AR-15s for F-15s since President Biden's statement on 23 June 2021. I think there might have been some attempts to get on the waiting list for nukes from North Korea and Iran as well.
President Joe Biden said during a press conference about soaring crime rates on Wednesday that Americans who buy firearms to defend against a tyrannical government would need to own “F-15s and maybe some nuclear weapons” to go up against the government.

2 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: July 2, 1933

I put the second coat of paint on the left side molding in the living room yesterday. I have a difficult time seeing what I am doing with just the one working eye but I think it is good.

We did our shorter walk this morning and I then left Patches with her sitter. Patches is always happy to go with anyone. No loyalty. HA

Then drove to the VA in Tucson with a stop at the gas station in Benson before getting on I-10. Last week I was delayed about 10 minutes by an accident that had traffic backed up for at least a couple miles. Today there was no delay.

The surgery could have happened today IF I had someone to drive me home. They would not do the surgery and then let me drive back to Huachuca City. I had the surgeon call the pet sitters and arrange a day when they could drive me to and from the Tucson VA. It will be next Thursday and a neighbor of the pet sitter will be doing the driving.

I had to get a Covid-19 test, an EKG and a blood draw for lab work today before driving back to the Park. That was very frustrating; I didn’t know where to go, couldn’t understand the directions that masked people were telling me. I finally had a guide lead me to a couple of the places where I need to go. This has been an experience. HA
“People have often asked me what effect Huxley and Orwell had on me, and whether either of them influenced the creation of Fahrenheit 451. The best response is Arthur Koestler. … [O]nly a few perceived the intellectual holocaust and the revolution by burial that Stalin achieved. … Only Koestler got the full range of desecration, execution, and forgetfulness on a mass and nameless graveyard scale. Koestler’s Darkness at Noon was therefore … true father, mother, and lunatic brother to my F. 451.” — Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

3 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
Today was shopping day. First stop was at the Landmark for breakfast which was the usual. They do have very good home fries however so that is alway a treat. Then to Fry's for a shorter grocery list that cost as much as my longer list did just a few months ago.

Then went to PetSmart for some goclosomine for Patches but had to wait 30 minutes for them to open. I have a 240 day supply in the package from Chewy but it is still in Springerville. I did finally get an email reply from the Park owner, after sending her three emails during this past week, that said the package would be taken care of. When?

There has been some light rain here the past couple of nights. We do need the rain but what little has come just has made it miserable. The humidity is way up, for this area, so my shirt is soaked with sweat by the time we finish our morning walk.
leftpic Sixty years after its original publication, Ray Bradbury’s internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 stands as a classic of world literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Today its message has grown more relevant than ever before.

The book is just slightly longer than a novella and originally was a short story. Bradbury wrote mostly short stories but this is his best known novel. Very good! Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known. — Book promo @ goodreads.com

4 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
I’ll not do much on this Holiday that is now not celebrated by the Woke half of the country. Maybe it will dry out and get the humidity level down to something I can live with.

The only thing that I might do today other than the routine is some masking. The next area that I want to get painted is all the molding in the bedroom.

The routine is reading a nonfiction book on Fire 8. I also started reading a novel online at archive.org that I could borrow for an hour at a time. This morning I found that I could download an ePub file so I’ll put that on the Fire 8 as well.

5 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
That ePub book that I was able to download was done using the Raspberry. In the past I was able to transfer books that I downloaded to the Fire 8 using email. However, my email server has a limit on attachment size and this book exceeded that.

What to do? I knew that I had a USB thumb drive that would connect to the Raspberry and I had a ‘converter cable’ that would connect the thumb drive to the Fire 8. I had never tried to transfer a file using this method before but was able to “Get ’er Done”. The ePub is from archives.org and was made using OCR so it is very poor quality but I think I can read the book.

There was more rain here during the early hours this morning. We also got wet when doing a potty walk during our usual morning walk. We stepped out into a very light rain which I had hoped would stop but no such luck. It did quit but not before we got wet and cut the walk short. This storm blew in on 1 July and has managed to drop 0.57'' of rain. Every little bit helps but I have had enough of the high humidity.

6 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
We got a little more rain early this morning. Not enough to make much difference but enough to keep my dirt walking routes muddy. Even without the slight added rain it is so humid that you can squeeze water from the air. If not from the air certainty from my shirt.

I’ll be trying to stay dry and cool. Using a lot of electricity with the A/C running more than most of my recent summers. The distiller uses its fair share as well; just finished filling all my jugs this morning.

I didn't get any masking done but still have it on my To Do List. The latest novel on Fire 8 has my attention. Maybe finish it today or tomorrow. Depends on my switching to the nonfiction book or not. HA
If you substitute Establishment for Church in this quote then I think you can see that nothing has changed in 600 years.
When the existence of the Church is threatened, she is released from the commandments of morality. With unity as the end, the use of every means is sanctified, even cunning, treachery, violence, simony, prison, death. For all order is for the sake of the community, and the individual must be sacrificed to the common good. — Dietrich Von Nieheim, Bishop Of Verden: De schismate libri III, A.D. 1411
As history has pointed out many times, that when the freest and most prosperous societies for their times reach the peak of egalitarianism, something strange happens. The most comfortable and privileged members of free and prosperous society develop a hatred of their own people and home. Sound familiar??–‘Oikosphobia’ is not the Fear of Mass-market Greek Yogurt , Diogenes Sarcastica™

7 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
Another sweaty morning walk. The temperature was not that high but the humidity matched it; actually exceeded it. The temperature is going up rapidly with a drop in the humidity but it still feels very ‘sticky’. The high yesterday was 97.3° with today probably reaching that or more. It will be miserable until the higher temperatures dry this desert out again.

I’ll not be doing much other than get ready to go to the VA in Tucson tomorrow. I need to check with my pet sitter and their neighbor late today and see what the arrangements are for getting me there. I think we will leave here at 5:30 am but need to confirm that. There is also the question of Patches going with us or not. I was originally thinking she would go with me but the temperatures are now much hotter than had been forecast last week.
This quote is only a small part of a very good chapter in a very good book.
The amount of individual freedom which a people may conquer and keep, depends on the degree of its political maturity. The aforementioned pendulum motion seems to indicate that the political maturing of the masses does not follow a continuous rising curve, as does the growing up of an individual, but that it is governed by more complicated laws.

The maturity of the masses lies in the capacity to recognize their own interests. This, however, presupposes a certain understanding of the process of production and distribution of goods. A people’s capacity to govern itself democratically is thus proportionate to the degree of its understanding of the structure and functioning of the whole social body. — Extract from N. S. Rubashov’s diary, 20th Day of Prison. The Third Hearing Chapter 1, Darkness At Noon by Arthur Koestler
The President of the US and the WH press secretary say government officials will be going door to door, trying to convince unvaccinated people to take the COVID vaccine.

My question is, if this is OK, why is it not OK for the next president or the one after to send government officials door to door to visit women who have had abortions to try to convince them not to have any in the future? Why is it not OK to send them to visit STD patients to get chastity pledges from them? Why isn’t it OK to visit diabetics and remove junk food from their kitchens?

There are all sorts of health choices that are not uniformly supported. If we are now openly into biopolitics, why be shy? Let’s hound as many people as possible for not following the mandate du jour.–Biopolitics, Clarissa

8 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
I’m putting up a post for this date early. I have no idea when I might have a chance to do the posting if I don’t do it now. I’ll add an update to it that tells about the eye surgery at the VA in Tucson when I am able.

The plan was for my pet sitter to keep Patches and their neighbor would drive me to the VA in Tucson in her car. She would wait for me to get out of surgery and drive me back to the Park.

I got small red beans and big hominy cooked yesterday. That is the base for some more succotash. The lentil pottage that I have remaining with the succotash should give me ‘linners’ for about a week. Maybe by then all this running back and forth to VA in Tucson will be behind me and I can get back to my normal way of life.

Upate: We left the Park at 5:30 and I checked in for my 7:00 appointment about 15 minutes eary. There was some paperwork to fill out of course. Then a weigh in which I have not had for a couple of years. Yeah! I was under 200 pounds fo the first time in probably 25-30 years. Then get underessed, into one of those hospital gowns that has your butt hanging out and into a bed that was also the surgery table.

Wired up for heart monitoring and an IV line for the anesthesiologist to do her thing. I had a choice with her. I could stay ‘under’ for the entire time or only while they did a local ‘numbing’ of the eye. I chose to be awake while they did the surgery. There was some pain involved because I made that choice but I avoided the more sever outcome when there is a bad anesthesia event.

I did need a driver to take me home, I was not fit to drive myself. Not in bad shape but increasing pain. We got back around noon and all I wanted to do was lay down. By 2:00 I was feeling better and took a couple of ibuprofen which heped even more so we could do our afternoon potty walk. Had some difficulty sleeping but a couple more ibuprofen around 2:00 am got me through the night.
leftpic Darkness at Noon (from the German: Sonnenfinsternis) is a novel by the Hungarian-born British novelist Arthur Koestler, first published in 1940. His best-known work tells the tale of Rubashov, a Bolshevik 1917 revolutionary who is cast out, imprisoned and tried for treason by the Soviet government he’d helped create.

Ray Bradbury claimed that this book inspired him to write Fahrenheit 451. I can see why he would say that. It is a very good book, It should be on everyone’s reading list especially anyone that likes historical fiction. Recommended! Darkness at Noon stands as an unequaled fictional portrayal of the nightmare politics of our time. Its hero is an aging revolutionary, imprisoned and psychologically tortured by the Party to which he has dedicated his life. As the pressure to confess preposterous crimes increases, he relives a career that embodies the terrible ironies and human betrayals of a totalitarian movement masking itself as an instrument of deliverance. Almost unbearably vivid in its depiction of one man’s solitary agony, it asks questions about ends and means that have relevance not only for the past but for the perilous present. It is — as the Times Literary Supplement has declared mdash; “A remarkable book, a grimly fascinating interpretation of the logic of the Russian Revolution, indeed of all revolutionary dictatorships, and at the same time a tense and subtly intellectualized drama.” — Book promo @ goodreads.com

9 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: July 9, 1933

I dove back to VA Tucson again this morning but first there was breakfast at Sunny D’s where I was their first customer. From there I went to Fry’s and got groceries. Then back to the Park where I left Patches with her sitter again.

I was able to drive myself but the left eye vision was even worse than usual. That was caused by an eye guard over the right eye that would not allow my glasses to sit correctly on my face. I got checked in for my appointment about an hour early and was all set to enjoy the nice cool A/C when they called for me.

The surgeon did a quick check up on her work, was satisfied, gave me some eye drops and ointment and said she would see me again on 30 July. She also said that I needed cataract surgery and put in an order for that. My first cataract appointment is set for 26 August with surgery dates to be determined then — I hope.

Drove back to the Park with better vision in the left eye. Could not keep the right eye open because it had been dilated and the sunlight was too bright. Inside Desperado I can now see some shapes and colors but they are very blurry at this time. I can only hope that there is improvement during the next few days.

The eye retina had a tear not the hole that was originally diagnosed. There was also still a lot of blood that needed to be removed. I think that was done by a second attending doctor at the surgery with my surgeon doing the laser work.

It continues to be hot and humid — miserable. Tucson was even worse this morning. I don’t plan on doing much today. There is laundry to be done tomorrow and holding tanks to be dumped during the weekend. That is all I am going to do other than try and stay cool.

10 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
The temperature was 101° at the time of our afternoon walk yesterday. We did not go. The high for the day was 102.6° that happened around 6:00pm we did a short walk at 7:00 when it was only 96. This morning it was 91 with 31% humidity at 9:00 am so we are going to get more of the saame today.

I stayed in Desperado and read about Climate Change. The A/C was working hard and it was still hot inside. We could have still been in Tucson where it was 108° at that same time. Or Yuma and Phoenix both reporting 111° and maybe get hotter before the end of the day.

Will the Great Reset fix this? Maybe if the price of everything that adds CO2 emissions is raised with taxes to a height that only the elites can pay — maybe.
Net zero isn’t a slogan, it’s an imperative of climate physics. To get on the path to stabilise temperatures at 1.5°C, emissions need to fall by a minimum of 8 per cent year on year over the next two decades. To put that into context, total CO2 emissions for 2020 (which incorporated full-scale, Covid-19-induced shutdowns of our economies) decreased by around 5 to 7 per cent. To be clear, even at this crisis-reduced rate, we are continuing to spend our carbon budget, and we are not on track to meet our temperature goals. And to put these efforts in context, a 10 per cent fall in global emissions during 2020 would have still meant 33 GtCO2 were released, a higher total than any carbon budgets per-capita by birth year for 1.5°C and 2°C scenarios. To limit temperature increases to 1.5°C, the ‘average” global citizen born today will have a personal carbon emissions budget over their lifetime equivalent to one-eighth of that of their grandparents. — Value(s) by Mark Carney
Went to town and chose to do laundry first but had a 20 minute wait for them to open. I thought they opened at 6:00. When I finished there it was a couple blocks to Café Ole´ for the first time since I got back in the area. Got their Vegeta Omelet which is the biggest that my three favorite restaurants provide. They also load up the plate with home fries but they are not as good as at the Landmark. That was all I wanted to do so got back into my space at the Park by 8:30.

I still can not see with the right eye although it is better this morning than it was yesterday when they took the bandage off. I have a lot of eye drops that need to be added during the next month. I may be good at adding them by then but I’m not very good now. The eye is quite sore and I do have the feeling that there is something in the eye. I was told to expect that. Overall better but not back to a functioning eye yet.

11 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
The high yesterday was 102.7° which again happened when we would have been doing our afternoon walk. It then started to cool down as a storm rolled in with the temperature dropping to 79 from 99 in about 40 minutes. I think it was more of a wind storm but we did get some rain — 0.70''. Certainly more than I was willing to go out and walk in.

It seemed to have stopped around 6:30 pm so we did a short potty walk in flooded streets. My usual dirt roads were going to be far too muddy this morning so we stayed in the Park and did almost our usual distance. Very humid; with the temperature and humidity both at 68-69. I can only hope the weather guessers are right and we start getting highs in the 80s starting on Wednesday.

Speaking of the 80s; it was 80° at 8:00 am today. I was able to get the holding tank dumps done right after breakfast, before it got out of the 70s. I have no plans to do anything else outside except our afternoon walk which has become an early evening walk when it cools down some.

The right eye vision is better. I would like for it to get better much faster but it is what it is. I can now see the mountains again; like looking through a cheesecloth but I can see them. The eye is still sore but not painful, I have taken no pain medication since some ibuprofen the day of the surgery.

If this were any drug other than “the vaccine” it would have been taken off the market by now. The trial was rushed and did not follow usual protocol with the side effects minimized by those that have a self-interest.
The US Food and Drug Administration added a warning about the risk of myocarditis and pericarditis to fact sheets for Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines Friday [25 June 2021].

The warning notes that reports of adverse events following vaccination — particularly after the second dose — suggest increased risks of both types of heart inflammation.
I have copied this posting in its entirety.
In Spain, the ultra-left coalition of power is preparing a legislation that will allow the government to declare a state of emergency and expropriate the citizens’ property whenever it likes. The “emergency” can be medical, environmental, or pretty much anything.
The legislation will effectively cancel the freedom of expression during these emergencies, forcing the media to publish only the information mandated by the government.
The legislation also allows the government to treat the population as military conscripts. This means that during the emergency du jour you’ll have to follow orders and abdicate your will to your superiors.
The legislation gives the government the right to enter your living quarters without a warrant and remove you from there at any time.
This is a suspension of the constitution for the duration of the crisis. And once again, everything can be deemed a crisis. Remember “you will own nothing”? This is what it looks like.
In the US we are two elections away from this kind of thing. The party that created this legislation in Spain came into existence as an anti-austerity party less than a decade ago. And look what they are doing. There is no left anymore that isn’t owned by World Bank. It’s done, it’s gone. Whatever it was in 1972, today it’s this. Austerity, exploitation, oppression. — Eternal Crisis by Clarissa

12 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
We got some cooler weather yesterday with the high at only 100.6° — HA. No rain but a cloud cover this morning and very humid. The weather guessers think it will be below 100 today and just over 90 tomorrow then 8 days in the 80s. I do hope they are right.

I have nothing planned for today other than trying to finish a nonfiction book on Fire 8 that has proved to be rather dull. There have been times that I thought about a “Did Not Finish” (DNF) but I’m now close.
“The propagandist process is scientifically based on the Pavlovian principle of the Conditioned Reflex,” Chatokin [Sergei Chakotin] explains, “ The driving force involved here is suggestion. Suggestion, according to Pavlov, exists in the same psychological realm as hypnosis or the dream-state in sleep. Thus an order given in this context is of guaranteed efficiency. The propaganda process therefore focuses on suggestion and its promotion and dissemination among the masses.” We saw a perfect example of this program in action with the Revolution’s promotion of George Floyd as a martyr. Notice the public reaction to some allegedly ‘racist’ incident and Pavlov’s experiment’s with dogs comes immediately to mind.–Conspiracy Theory Part I, The Night Wind
But I’ll tell you what the problem is, as a former citizen of the Soviet Union. The problem of empires is that they imagine themselves to be so powerful that they can allow themselves small miscalculations and errors. Some they’ll bribe, some they’ll scare, some they’ll make a deal with, some they’ll give glass beads, some they’ll frighten with warships—and this will fix problems. But the number of problems continues to grow. There comes a moment when they can no longer cope with them. The United States are making sure-footed strides directly along the path of the Soviet Union. — President Putin’s address at the St. Petersburg World Economic Forum
Interesting factoids; I wonder why there is 24/7 media coverage for Coronavirus® and virtually none for the West Nile virus. Why is there no vaccine for the West Nile virus? Could it be that there is no money to be made from it?

Death rate (deaths÷cases) in Arizona from Coronavirus® 2%

Death rate in Arizona from West Nile virus 18%
Since first appearing in the United States in 1999, West Nile Virus has emerged as an important health threat in this country. NIAID is committed to research efforts to advance a preventive vaccine that could protect people against West Nile Virus infection. — NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. (2015)
Phase I clinical trials for a West Nile vaccine for humans were begun in 2015 however none have progressed to phase III. I think the “the jab” is the phase III trial for a Coronavirus® vaccine.

13 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
I have become impatient for the vision in my right eye to approach what was ‘normal’ before the surgery. So I did some DuckDuck Searches (I have boycotted Google Search) and found the following at multiple places. I don't like what they have to say but it does help my impatience — some.
Because it can take up to a week for the laser treatment to seal the retinal tear, a recovery period of about 10-14 days is recommended. It is normal for light flashes or floaters to continue after the laser surgery. The laser treatment does not treat these, and they typically resolve gradually on their own over a period of weeks to months.
Adding eye drops four times a day is what keeps me active during these hot and humid days. It has cooled somewhat with the highs now in the 90s. The forecast is still for the next nine days to have highs in the 80s. That will be better but will remain uncomfortable if the humidity does not go down.

I should finish the dull nonfiction book today. Will start a novel and maybe another nonfiction book that I can switch to from time to time. Nothing else planned.

14 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
I think my right eye is better today but can’t tell for sure. Can’t see the mountains with my left eye because of all the water vapor in the air. There is a curtain in front of the mountains.

What I do know is this is the last day of week one after the surgery. That means it is the last day for putting in eye drops from two bottles four times a day and a tube three times a day. Next week I’ll only have to use one bottle and the tube three times a day. Progress!
leftpic A bold, urgent argument on the misplacement of value in financial markets and how we can and need to maximize value for the many, not few.
“The book seems to be built on three verbs: need, should, and must. Carney is all about bankers and governments needing to do this and that. But the verbs are not followed by solutions. Carney’s needs and musts are about putting structure in place to analyze the effects of solutions should anyone come up with them. He himself has none.” This is from a very long Customer Review by David Wineberg @ goodread.com. I agree with almost everything he says but would not give the book more than two stars. I found it dull. As an economist and former banker, Mark Carney has spent his life in various financial roles, in both the public and private sector. Values(s) is a meditation on his experiences that examines the short-comings and challenges of the market in the past decade which he argues has led to rampant, public distrust and the need for radical change. Focusing on four major crises—the Global Financial Crisis, the Global Health Crisis, Climate Change and the 4th Industrial Revolution—Carney proposes responses to each. His solutions are tangible action plans for leaders, companies and countries to transform the value of the market back into the value of humanity. Book promo @ goodreads.com
Monopolies can be far less temporary than Schumpeter thought; while in some cases the threat of entry can be an important impetus to innovation, in other cases, to maintain their monopoly power, firms devote considerable resources to the creation of socially unproductive entry barriers. In doing so, incumbents can discourage the overall pace of innovation. Microsoft has become the poster child of how an incumbent can discourage innovation. These and other firms have become highly innovative—in creating new forms of entry barriers and in extracting rents out of their monopoly power. — Introduction by Joseph E. Stiglitz to Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, Joseph Schumpeter
I can’t make this stuff up; this is from a NEWS story. Pronounced dead about a half hour after the attack? I’m amazed there was enough of him left to examine.
KTS Dre, a Windy City area rap artist, was shot 64 times in an ambush sprung outside the Cook County Jail in Chicago over the weekend.…
The Chicago Police said that the rapper, born Londre Sylvester, was riddled with 64 wounds in his head and upper body. He was immediately transported to Mount Sinai Hospital but was pronounced dead about a half hour after the attack, the Cook County medical examiner reported.

15 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
Today is miserably humid. Overcast with scattered showers just making it worse. The high temperature might stay below 90 but with the humidity it is more like living in the Midwest rather than Hot-N-Dry Arizona.

It was a shopping day with the first stop at the Landmark for breakfast where I always get their good home fries. Then picked up groceries where the crowd had not yet arrived so that was a quick in and out. Then drove out to D & J RV Center to talk about maybe doing the counter top and shade installs before October. That was a waste of time.

Had a few minutes to wait at the barber shop but when the second barber arrived I was first on her list. The last stop was at the bank where I cashed a check from the RV Park in St David that reimbursed me for an overpayment of electricity used.

I'll finish the novel that I have been reading today and continue reading the nonfiction book that I also started. Probably download another novel and will then switch back and forth.

16 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: July 16, 1933

I sent an email to my contact in South Africa expressing my hope for his safety and that of his company (Jim Green Footwear). This is the partial reply that I received:
… has been a very surreal and scary few days this side, especially as our factory was right in the middle of all the destruction. Our community managed to fend off any looters and for now it is still standing which is a relief. Today has started off well as we can slowly get back to normal as the army has finally arrived and the “Taxi bosses*” have got involved as want to get back to work (those guys mean business and have their own rules) , but sadly the destruction is heartbreaking and well over150 of the stores we supply are now burnt to the ground or looted. As we used to doing here in South Africa, we will bounce back.
*The regional taxi council said its members would quell any attempt at starting riots and looting in the areas where they operate.
There is just another very humid day in store for me. I cooked some hulled barley and oat groats yesterday and started distilling water last night. Will add as little heat inside Desperado today as I can.

I received a third notice from Chewy that my package had been delivered. The first time was 24 June when it was delivered to the RV Park in Springerville and I was on my way to Sierra Vista. I’m not sure where the second delivery was made. This last one was at my UPS Store which I know because the store sent me a notice of receipt as well. I’ pick it up next week when I go shopping.
leftpic Volume 42 of 54 of Jules Verne’s “Extraordinary Voyages”, first printed in 1897. Facing the Flag is one of the earliest stories dealing with a very modern theme: the development of weapons of mass destruction, This is not one of Verne’s better books. Maybe it is just me, but I think the books published after both his mother and publisher Pierre-Jules Hetze died in 1886 are not as good as his earlier ones. and the international community’s attempts to reconcile this. Thomas Roch, a celebrated inventor, has supposedly created a weapon so devastating that he demands enormous amounts of money to contract it to the nations of the world. However, his acclamations are not only heard by the sovereign nations; his superweapon is also intently sought after by a villainous mind, striking from his secret island fortress. — Book promo @ Amazon
The Boston LGBTQ organization had a too white board of directors so Black Lives Matter took them down. Isn’t all this diversity, unity and tolerance great? As Jaques Mallet du Pan said “like Saturn, the Revolution devours its children.”
Boston Pride, the organization that has organized the city’s Pride celebrations for 50 years, has announced it is shutting down.

The dissolution, announced Friday [9 July 2021] afternoon in a statement on the group’s website, comes after the reportedly all-white board of directors has faced ongoing accusations of ignoring racial minorities and transgender people. “It is clear to us that our community needs and wants change without the involvement of Boston Pride,” the board said in its statement.–Boston Pride dissolves amid diversity complaints, Dan Avery

17 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
We got rain yesterday from around 1:00 in the afternoon until 4:30 when we took a chance to go out and do our walk. There were a few sprinkles but it looked like we could get very wet very quickly so we did a little less distance than usual. Lack of courage

Have some lentils in the Thermal Cooker this morning. Probably get some beans and hominy soaking overnight and cook them tomorrow. I’m running out of precooked stuff for my ‘linners’.

That is all that I plan on doing today other than reading the two books that I have started on Fire 8. I have another book that is pending which I can read one hour at a time online at archives.org but don’t want to get that one started yet. I can download it for 14 days as well but don’t want to do that either while reading the two that I have going.
If you care to understand what a total failure the entirety of the world’s health authorities have been in dealing with the “Covid pandemic” consider that in malaria-infested African countries there is no Covid, no masks, no lockdowns. Why is this? The answer is that in malaria-infested countries people take a HCQ pill one a week.

Consider Tanzania, for example. The entire population of Tanzania—59,734,218 people— is considered at risk for malaria, with 93% of the population living in malaria transmission areas. Consequently, the population takes HCQ once a week as a preventative against malaria. HCQ is also a preventative and a cure for Covid. In all of Tanzania over the period from January 3, 2020 to July 14, 2021, there are only 509 reported cases of Covid and 21 reported deaths. Almost all occurred in April 2020. link–How the Covid “Pandemic” Was Orchestrated, Paul Craig Roberts

18 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
A drizzle started around 4:30 this morning which changed to rain for short periods. It was enough to keep it dark and Patches let me sleep until 6:00. I let her outside in the rain to go pee but she was not going for it. Just sat at the bottom of the steps looking at me to say it was alright to get back in her house. We then did a short potty walk around 7:00 and got a little wet. Going to be a hot and humid day once more.

I have that pot of beans and hominy on the stove this morning. Soon it will go into the Thermal Cooker for the rest of the day to finish cooking.

I’ll probably finish the novel that I have been reading today. The nonfiction book will take a lot more time. It will be read from time to time while I’m reading another novel. Don’t know what that will be but will download something before the day is done.

19 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
A nother humid morning after a thunderstorm last night that started a little before 7:00. This was a monsoon storm like what I remember them to have been. Thor throws lightning and uses his hammer to make loud thunder then dumps buckets of water.

Patches was a little upset but acted like she was protecting me against this uncalled for noisy attack. I think we got a little over 1'' of rain for the day with most of it coming from the Thor thunderstorm.

I got outside soon after eating breakfast and dumped holding tanks and added water. Probably no rain this morning but scattered thunderstorms forecast everyday for the next week. Hot and humid.

I was going to download another novel but decided on another travelogue. I’ll still switch from that to the nonfiction book that I have started. Nothing else going on here.
leftpic Flashman at the Charge is a 1973 novel by George MacDonald Fraser. It is the fourth of the Flashman novels. Playboy magazine serialised Flashman at the Charge in 1973 in their April, May and June issues. This was the fourth in the series as published but is the seventh in the chronological life of Flashman. Another rousing tale. The serialisation is unabridged, including most of the notes and appendixes and features a few illustrations, collages from various paintings and pictures to depict a period montage of the Charge and Crimea. While George MacDonald Fraser claimed he never had a favourite among the Flashman novels he said his agent, George Greenfield, thought this was the best. — Wikipedia


20 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
We got another 0.40'' of rain starting around 1:30 this morning. That is keeping my dirt roads too muddy for morning walking although I have been able to walk them in the afternoons — if it is not raining.

The forecast is for more thunderstorms during the next few days with the next three days high temperatures to be in the low 90s or high 80s. It is going to be hot and humid. Then if the weather guessers get it right it will cool into the upper 70s. I wish!

Nothing much is happening today. I’ll just try to stay cool. Shopping tomorrow which I want to get done early with that same goal in mind.
This posting by JHK covers a lot of ground; I have selected what he has said about Coronavirus®.
The supposed surge in new Covid cases is really just a tiny blip, considering it comes off a baseline of close to zero cases in many places. 11,140 so far have died from Covid vaccinations, according to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS)*. Last week 2,092 deaths from vaccinations were added versus 1,918 deaths from the virus. Countries with the highest vaccination rates are showing the most new Covid cases.–The Counter-truths Unspin , James Howard Kunstler
*Link
Written 100 years ago and even more true today.
…the Things that are our gods, the knick-knacks and the scraps of engraved paper and the vases and the curtain rods, the fussy junk possession of which divides poor man from rich man, the shoddy manufactured goods that are all our civilization prizes, that we wear our hands and brains out working for; so that from being an erect naked biped, man has become a sort of hermit crab that can’t live without a dense conglomerate shell of dinner coats and limousines and percolators and cigar store coupons and egg beaters and sewing machines, so that the denser his shell, the feebler his self-sufficience, the more he is regarded a great man and a millionaire. — Orient Express, John Dos Passos

21 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
The trip to town took a little longer than I originally thought. I forgot that I had to pick up the package that was delivered to Springerville the day that I left there. The box was rather beat up but everything was still in the box. Another worry finally settled.

The day started with our full distance walk on the dirt road where we usually do our walks. It was very muddy in one place but I stayed out of it by walking in ATV tracks. When we got to town I had breakfast at Café Olé where it is their Vegeta Omelet that I now get all the time. An expensive grocery gathering at Fry’s where the prices seem to go up every week. Then after a short wait at the UPS Store I got my package and headed back to the Park.

I have sent emails to DAV that offer transportation to the VA. Maybe I can get them to take me to Tucson and return when/if I have cataract surgery.I will still need to find a sitter for Patches but that is easier than finding someone to drive me there, wait and drive me back.
For more than 100 years the United States has never remembered the little people in Iran. The Establishment offers platitudes but has never supported them when they have shown a desire to overthrow their government. The simple reason being that they did not want a government that the United States wanted.
Later as we drove before dawn on the last stage to Teheran, the Sayyid said again:—What is the mistake all the European powers make with regard to Persia [Iran]? I will tell you. They think only of the great personages. They do not realize that there are little people, like me, doctors, mollahs, small merchants, and that even the peasants talk politik in the teahouses along the roadside. They know they can bribe and threaten the great personages and they think they have the country in the palm of their hands. But they cannot bribe us, the little people, because we are too many. If they buy me over or get me killed there will be hundreds of others who think just like me to take my place. What good will it do them?…
—And when you go back to your country, said the Sayyid,—do not forget to tell the Americans that there are little people in Asia — Orient Express, John Dos Passos
There are little people in the United States now as well. These two articles say much the same things that Sayyid was saying.
On Irish Democracy: The Powers That Be are greedy

This approach calls for “Gray Man”, “Going Galt”, and “Irish Democracy”

22 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
This morning we were able to walk another route on the dirt roads. No rain during the night which meant that the humidity was not as high. The best morning walk we have had in weeks; not great but the best.

I received an email from D & J RV Center a couple days ago that said they could set an appointment to install the bedroom window shades in September. I responded that any day was good although the VA could upset the date by also scheduling cataract surgery. No further correspondence.

I also stopped at the Park office and asked if they could help arrange a sitter for Patches and transportation for me if I do need cataract surgery. It just happened that there was a woman there at that same time that knew the fellow here in the Park that was a member of the Sierra Vista DAV. She was going to talk to him which is good because they have not replied to my email.
leftpic Before John Dos Passos enjoys fame as a chronicler and critic of American society, he wins recognition for command of aesthetics. Orient Express, a memoir of the author’s travels through Eastern Europe, the near East, and the Middle East, focuses on sights, sounds, and smells rather than plot or character. Dos Passos applies his instincts as a painter to mountain ranges and grimy alleyways, finding beauty everywhere.
I liked this book the best of anything that I have read of Dos Passos’ so far. Until the last couple of chapters. The early chapters I think were written in 1921, or from notes taken then, the last two were probably written in 1927 when he went to Morocco, wrote the book and had it published. I have hope for his books yet. His tour extends from Tiflis, Georgia to Erivan, Armenia and Marrakesh, Morocco; from Kasvin, Iran to Baghdad, Iraq and Damascus, Syria. He crosses the Syrian Desert, observes the aftermath of the Greek-Turkish War, climbs the Caucasus, explores Persia during the rise of Reza Kahn, and records the creation of Iraq by the British. His message is clear and relevant to contemporary travelers: holiness and happiness abounds in the East as much as the West.
“With the name of Allah for all baggage,” Dos Passos writes, “you could travel from the Great Wall of China to the Niger and be fairly sure of food, and often of money, if only you were ready to touch your forehead in the dust five times a day and put away self and the glamorous West. And yet,” he adds, “the West is conquering.” — From writings @ johndospassos.com
This quote is from an article that is well worth reading. I have retained the formatting that was in the quote. Note: Part of the quote is a requote; original source Link.
There are 67 Democrats in the TX Delegation. I presume not all of them flew to DC; the news says “more than 50”, which is enough to deny the quorum and was the point of the exercise.

There are now six confirmed Covid infections among them, and all are fully vaccinated. That’s a failure rate of roughly 10% for symptomatic infections, and not just preventing infection either — they transmitted it to each other as the infections were serial; not all got it on the same day.

Since the CDC says somewhere between 6 and 24 (best guess 11) people are entirely asymptomatic and untested for each tested, symptomatic infection this means that more than half of the delegation in fact has the virus and is presumably, under the CD’s claim of “asymptomatic transmission”, spreading it to others.
 Is ten percent failure rare? How about more than fifty percent?

That sounds rather more like “worthless” to me. What say you?–So much for the COVID-19 vaccination!, Peter Grant
We are seeing outbreaks of cases in parts of the country that have low vaccination coverage because unvaccinated people are at risk. Meantime, communities that are fully vaccinated are generally faring well. — US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Rochelle Walensky, 16 July 2021 White House Covid-19 briefing
It is unfortunate that five and then six of the TX Fleebaggers tested positive soon after the good Dr. made this statement; all of them fully vaccinated.

23 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: July 23, 1933

We got more rain last night starting around 11:00. A total of 0.40'' which left a lot of puddles in the Park and a lot of mud in my dirt roads. We stayed in the Park and I might have to stay there this afternoon as well.

The weather gurus think there will be more rain today and tomorrow with the high temperatures in the 70s. Then the rest of the 10 Day forecast to be in the mid to upper 80s with only a couple days of isolated thunderstorms. I look forward to getting back to lower humidity.

I now have an appointment with D & J RV Center on 15 September to have the bedroom shades installed. That is great If the VA does not mess it up by scheduling cataract surgery for that day . We will see.

Nothing else going on here today.
This quote is spoken by one of the characters in the book which was published in 1921. What the character says is what James Howard Kunstler has been saying now for more than 30 years. I’ll be reading some of his books that are on this theme soon.
Poverty, ignorance, and a limited range of materials produced the hovel, which possesses undoubtedly, in suitable surroundings, its own ‘as it were titanic’ charm. We now employ our wealth, our technical knowledge, our rich variety of materials for the purpose of building millions of imitation hovels in totally unsuitable surroundings. Could imbecility go further? — Crome Yellow, Aldous Huxley

I resemble this remark by a character in the book.
After all, what is reading but a vice, like drink or venery or any other form of excessive self-indulgence? One reads to tickle and amuse one’s mind; one reads, above all, to prevent oneself thinking. — Crome Yellow, Aldous Huxley

24 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
Yesterday afternoon it looked like we could get very wet almost at any moment during our walk within the Park. It was raining very hard to the northwest of us and moving our way. Did almost our usual distance and stayed mostly dry.

This morning was a different story. I woke up early and could hear light rain. Then when we got up I thought we could get in a walk with a very light sprinkle. Wrong! We were not out there for more than five minutes and got wet when that sprinkle changed to rain. That is what it had been doing for oa couple of hours; sprinkles then a shower.

We gave it another try after breakfast. Got wet again but it took a little more than 15 minutes to do it that time. Maybe get in a full distance walk this afternoon. It will be within the Park for sure; the dirt roads will be far too muddy.
Sort of sound like The Great Reset does it not? “You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy.”
In the upbringing of the Herd, humanity’s almost boundless suggestibility will be scientifically exploited. Systematically, from earliest infancy, its members will be assured that there is no happiness to be found except in work and obedience; they will be made to believe that they are happy, that they are tremendously important beings, and that everything they do is noble and significant. Working their eight hours a day, obeying their betters, convinced of their own grandeur and significance and immortality, they will be marvellously happy, happier than any race of men has ever been. They will go through life in a rosy state of intoxication, from which they will never awake. — Chrome Yellow, Aldous Huxley
This is from a good article by JHK which also includes this from one of his commenters, “In my opinion, most of the deaths from the mRNA ‘vax’ are going to take much longer via long-term inflammatory damage to the vascular system (including heart tissue, brain blood vessels, etc.) That is my opinion as well. Long term inflammation may have been the goal of “gain of function research”.
Every day we are learning more about the spike protein time-bombs the vaxxed population is walking around with in their veins. And now it’s coming clear why science has been made such a fetish of lately: because science has failed spectacularly, which is an even greater tragedy because when this stupendous calamity is over, what’s left of the civilized world will, by default, turn to superstition as its logical replacement.–Big Fail, James Howard Kunstler

25 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
The rain continued its same pattern of the morning all day until about 4:00 in the afternoon. We were then able to do a walk in the Park that was almost our usual afternoon distance.

This morning we have the same rainy conditions. I offered Patches the opportunity to go outside without me and she just stood at the top of the stairs. Didn't want anything to do with going out there and getting wet. She did go outside with me to pee and then was more than happy to get back out of the rain. We will try to do a morning walk after breakfast.

The good weather News is that it has been cooler so I have not been running the A/C. I’ll be doing nothing much today other than reading (I now have three books started) and trying to stay dry.
leftpic On vacation from school, Denis goes to stay at Crome, an English country house inhabited by several of Huxley’s most outlandish characters—from Mr. Barbecue-Smith, who writes 1,500 publishable words an hour by “getting in touch” with his “subconscious,’ to Henry Wimbush, who is obsessed with writing the definitive “History of Crome.” Denis’s stay proves to be a disaster amid his weak attempts to attract the girl of his dreams and the ridicule he endures regarding his plan to write a novel about love and art. This was Huxley’s first novel, published in 1921, but there were at least two themes included that appear in Brave New World that was published in 1932. Recommended! Lambasting the post-Victorian standards of morality, Crome Yellow is a witty masterpiece that, in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s words, “is too ironic to be called satire and too scornful to be called irony.” — Book promo @ goodread.com
I have read a few articles lately that all have made the same point as that made in this quote — satire is dead now that Woke controls the culture. This is from a good article that merits a read.
Indeed the only satire made now pokes fun at the old establishment, like punching the corpse of a once-ferocious zoo animal, or the people who still hold the old beliefs; the elderly, the less educated, the rural and provincial. The powerless.–The West’s cultural revolution is over, Ed West
From one of those books that I have started.
The original title [Scary Places] had derived from one of my favorite epigrams in the manuscript: “We built a nation of scary places and became a nation of scary people.” It was the soundest line of political analysis I ever came up with, and is more true today than ever. — The Geography of Nowhere, James Howard Kunstler Introduction to 20 th Anniversary Edition

26 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
During our afternoon walk I stopped and talked to a woman that has agreed to dog sit Patches if I have cataract surgery. Patches will stay in Desperado while I am gone but the woman will check on her, walk her and make sure she has water. So I have one duck in order.

It is expected to be mostly sunny today and hotter. The forecast high is in the upper 80s but I expect it to be 90 or above. Only a slight chance of rain; the last two day storms dropped about 1.5''. There will be another trip to town tomorrow but not much happening here today.
This is a very good article by Pat Buchanan which I recommend. But, President Kennedy’s speech on June 10, 1963 is an even more pressing read. He would not get the Democrat Party nomination for president in the United States of today and you can see from this speech why they killed him.
During his speech at American University, Kennedy mentioned a crucial fact about the long history between Russia and America:
“Almost unique among the major world powers, we have never been at war with each other.”
Maintaining that 230-year tradition should be at the apex of our concerns, not how Vladimir Putin rules what is, after all, his country.–JFK — Accept Our Diverse World as It Is, Patrick J. Buchanan
Follow the science — but be sure to select the science that you agree with.
Of the 700 physicians responding to an internet survey by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), nearly 60 percent said they were not “fully vaccinated” against COVID.
This contrasts with the claim by the American Medical Association that 96 percent of practicing physicians are fully vaccinated. This was based on 300 respondents. Neither survey represents a random sample of all American physicians, but the AAPS survey shows that physician support for the mass injection campaign is far from unanimous. …Of the unvaccinated physicians, 80 percent said “I believe risk of shots exceeds risk of disease,” and 30% said “I already had COVID.”–Majority of US Physicians Decline COVID Shots, According to Survey , Association of American Physicians and Surgeon

27 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
Nothing much to report about my trip to town today. Stopped at Sunny D’s for breakfast and then went to Fry’s for groceries.

Hot and muggy already this morning with the forecast high to be 87° with a 50% chance of rain this afternoon. We were able to walk the dirt road going west but I suspect that to go east would have us in some mud. If it does not rain then maybe tomorrow we can go that way.

My Timex GPS watch is acting strange. It shows that it is charging but never moves from 70% charged. This morning after our walk it still showed 70%. I ordered a Garmin Forerunner 35 this morning off eBay at a price that I had on an Amazon Watch List for a long time before I bought the Timex. I have been having a lot of watch troubles this past year.
This quote is from a good article that the Establishment would not want you to read.
Why does America torture Cuba? Because Washington divides countries into two categories, those that submit, and enemies. Which countries don’t lick American boots? Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, and…Cuba. America does everything, and will do everything it can to crush the disobedient: embargos, sanctions, invasion, isolation from the world financial system, coups, assassination, tariffs, bombing. When vassals it calls allies, such as Europe, begin to show independence, as by allowing Nordstream II, it sanctions them as readily as it does the enemies. But, see, it isn’t to protect the Empire, to hurt anybody to any extent to remain dominant, to ruin millions upon millions of people who have no interest in politics, in order to maintain hegemony. No. It’s to overthrow dictators. Except those useful to Washington, which it frequently installs.–A Sadistic Foreign Policy, Fred Reed
I have quoted the closing paragraph from a posting by JHK that is probably the angriest one by him that I can remember reading.
We are slip-sliding toward that terrible moment. And, you better remember that this strife over Covid-19 is but one part of a much bigger picture of evolving national woe. Looming beyond this mere skirmish over public health is an economy that has sunk into uniform racketeering, the disgraceful mismanagement of government spending, the specter of a dying currency, the developing quandaries for our food supply, the probability of a market blowup that will bring down the pension system and destroy the notional wealth of millions, and the growing antagonism of foreign polities who resent our badly-discharged power around the world and sense our growing weakness. Maybe you should get woke to that?–In a Hall of Mirrors You Have To Break Some Glass To See Clearly, James Howard Kunstler
This is the essence of the hubris that tries to destroy history: Yesterday’s tomorrow turns out to be no future at all. And this destructive, futureless economy is precisely the predicament in which America finds itself today. — The Geography of Nowhere, James Howard Kunstler

28 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
I went out soon after breakfast and did the holding tank dumps and added water before it got too hot. Weather Underground has lost my reporting station again so I’m not sure how hot it got yesterday but think it was in the low 90s. Expect today to be the same.

We had a quick thunderstorm yesterday before our usual afternoon walk. Strong winds. Cochise County where RV Awnings Come To Die. I had a neighbor pull in with a 5th wheel around noon. Got all set up and then left. I saw that his awning is now ready for the Cochise County Awning Graveyard. He has not come back yet to see it — an expensive lesson.

I’ll be getting the next month’s Will Rogers weekly articles prepared today. Then tomorrow start doing the month end household chores. Friday I go to VA again in Tucson for the retina surgeon to take a look at her work. I sure hope she is pleased.
This story is not carried by any of the first tier Mainstream Media. There are a lot of sources but none of the heavy narrative hitters.
Twitter has suspended several accounts focused on ballot audits in the states of Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin on the same day that Congress begins partisan Democrat-led select committee hearings on the events of January 6th.–Election 2020 Audit Accounts Banned by Twitter on the Day 1/6 Select Committee Hearings Began, Allum Bokhari
Long-distance car travel on an interstate highway is literally like going nowhere fast. — James Howard Kunstler

29 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
There came a good old fashioned monsoon rain yesterday afternoon. This was a monsoon as I remember it from my growing up years. Buckets of water, almost gale strength winds, some hail mixed in, lightning and thunder. All within about a half hour with the temperature dropping around 30°.

That happened just at the time we would have gone out to do our walk. I ate ‘linner’ then we walked. Through a lot of shallow running water and around a lot of puddles. This morning we stayed in the Park again and probably will be there for the afternoon walk also. The dirt roads are a muddy mess and there is a 50% chance that we will get a repeat performance.

I got the bathroom cleaned up and the floors washed down this morning soon after breakfast. That is probably all I’ll do today. I need to go to the Park office and pay a high electric bill. I have used about twice the electricity this past month that I use when I’m here in the ‘spring’.

Posting will be late tomorrow after I get back from the VA in Tucson. Maybe stop in Benson and see what is happening with my Chromebook that was left there in the computer shop.
leftpic In this much-anticipated book, a leading economist argues that many key problems of the American economy are due not to the flaws of capitalism or the inevitabilities of globalization but to the concentration of corporate power. By lobbying against competition, the biggest firms drive profits higher while depressing wages and limiting opportunities for investment, innovation, and growth.

This is one of the very few books that I have read that was written by an economics professor that was readable. He does have some footmaks but you might say there are none by academic writing standards. The book that I downloaded did not show the graphs that are sprinkled throughout (there was just a white box). A discussion of economics must have graphs; they are de rigueur; but I usually ignore them so this did not change my opinion of the book. Recommended. Why are cell-phone plans so much more expensive in the United States than in Europe? It seems a simple question. But the search for an answer took Thomas Philippon on an unexpected journey through some of the most complex and hotly debated issues in modern economics. Ultimately he reached his surprising conclusion: American markets, once a model for the world, are giving up on healthy competition. Sector after economic sector is more concentrated than it was twenty years ago, dominated by fewer and bigger players who lobby politicians aggressively to protect and expand their profit margins. Across the country, this drives up prices while driving down investment, productivity, growth, and wages, resulting in more inequality. Meanwhile, Europe—long dismissed for competitive sclerosis and weak antitrust—is beating America at its own game.

Philippon, one of the world’s leading economists, did not expect these conclusions in the age of Silicon Valley start-ups and millennial millionaires. But the data from his cutting-edge research proved undeniable. In this compelling tale of economic detective work, we follow him as he works out the basic facts and consequences of industry concentration in the U.S. and Europe, shows how lobbying and campaign contributions have defanged antitrust regulators, and considers what all this means for free trade, technology, and innovation. For the sake of ordinary Americans, he concludes, government needs to return to what it once did best: keeping the playing field level for competition. It’s time to make American markets great—and free—again. — Book promo @ goodreads.com
JHK has the same belief that I do that you lose your citizenship in the United States if you do not possess an automobile and a telephone (preferably a smartphone).
The average citizen—who went to school in a building modeled on a shoe factory, who works in a suburban office park, who lives in a raised ranch house, who vacations in Las Vegas—would not recognize a building of quality if a tornado dropped it in his yard. But the professional architects, who ought to know better, have lost almost as much ability to discern the good from the bad, the human from the antihuman. The consequence of losing our planning skills is the monotony and soullessness of single-use zoning, which banished the variety that was the essence of our best communities. Most importantly, we have lost our knowledge of how to physically connect things in our everyday world, except by car and telephone. — The Geography of Nowhere, James Howard Kunstler

30 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: July 30, 1933

The eye surgeon says that the eye looks good and my vision is good. I don’t think the vision is very good but it is probably as good as it was before the torn retina. She wants to see me again in December. Maybe by then I will have also had cataract surgery and my vision will be even better.

Another accident on I-10 that delayed me only slightly going to Tucson but had traffic backed up for 5-6 miles when I was returning. Fortunately that back up was on the TO Tuson side of I-10 rather than the FROM side. This time it was two 18 wheelers both on their sides in the median One of them was a car carrier that had a load of cars still chained in place.

That is all my news for the day. Looks like the afternoon walk may get rained out or delayed. If not I might be able to walk some of the dirt road routes.
leftpic The Geography of Nowhere traces America’s evolution from a nation of Main Streets and coherent communities to a land where every place is like no place in particular, where the cities are dead zones and the countryside is a wasteland of cartoon architecture and parking lots.

I read the 20th Anniversary edition of the book. Not sure if there had been updates made to the original that was published in 1993. But everything in the book remains as true today as it was almost 30 years ago. A recommended book. In elegant and often hilarious prose, Kunstler depicts our nation’s evolution from the Pilgrim settlements to the modern auto suburb in all its ghastliness. The Geography of Nowhere tallies up the huge economic, social, and spiritual costs that America is paying for its car-crazed lifestyle. It is also a wake-up call for citizens to reinvent the places where we live and work, to build communities that are once again worthy of our affection. Kunstler proposes that by reviving civic art and civic life, we will rediscover public virtue and a new vision of the common good. “The future will require us to build better places,” Kunstler says, “or the future will belong to other people in other societies.”

The Geography of Nowhere has become a touchstone work in the two decades since its initial publication, its incisive commentary giving language to the feeling of millions of Americans that our nation’s suburban environments were ceasing to be credible human habitats. Since that time, the work has inspired city planners, architects, legislators, designers and citizens everywhere. In this special 20th Anniversary edition, dozens of authors and experts in various fields share their perspective on James Howard Kunstler’s brave and seminal work. — Book promo @ goodreads.com
I would like to know the answer to these questions.
To ask the question again, what is the purpose of the vaccination? Is the purpose the “grave harm to female fertility”? Is the purpose the large percentage of the vaccinated population that some experts expect will die from the vaccine’s toxicity? Is the purpose Big Pharma’s profits? Is the purpose to breach the law that requires informed consent for any intervention in one’s body so that authorities can mandate that we be microchipped?
Something is going on that we are not being told.–Why Is a Toxic Vaccine Being Mandated?, Paul Craig Roberts

31 July 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
no
There was no more rain yesterday or during the night. I was able to do a morning walk along the dirt road to the east and stayed mostly out of the mud. I did have to walk through some slightly muddy areas with very high wet grass.

I finished distilling more water yesterday and have a pot of beans and hominy in the Thermal Cooker now. That will be the base for more succotash which I then add green chile, squash and spices when I reheat it. I also need to cook a pot of pottage for future meals; maybe yellow split peas and garbanzos as the base.
JHK has put up another good posting. JHK does not subscribe to the scenario I have quoted, just presents it — whereas I think it has merit. Bill Gates has been quoted as saying that the population needs to be reduced by 10-15%. I’m not sure what target Klaus Schwab and George Soros might have.
Their narrative goes like this: humans have over-replicated, like maggots in a trash can, they’re wrecking the planet and gobbling (our) resources, and we must find a way to get rid of them that looks like a natural catastrophe so the hidden powers-that-be don’t get blamed for pulling a global Auschwitz. Hence Covid-19 and the sketchy vaccinations. (“The Great Reset.” You will be dead and you will like it!).–Things Get Ripe, James Howard Kunstler
Australia has gone over the top in their efforts to combat Coronavirus®. The blog posting from which I selected the quote speaks of Sydney but the State of Victoria is even worse. The United States is on the same dead end road.
There is now talk of monthly booster shots for the Covid vaccine. For how long? Into perpetuity for all we know. Another possibility is the unknown number of mid and long-term side effects from these shots. The complications that arise could necessitate a wide array of daily medicines all designed to keep you going due to that unfortunate vaccine business back in the early 2020s which nobody is allowed to mention anymore.

Lifelong customers for Big Pharma.

Don’t like it and we’ll lock you up. Almost a million residents of Sydney are now confined to their homes, detained without any trial because of a literal handful of infections and their collective unwillingness to succumb to the jab. On a daily basis the fear mongering is cranked up one more painful notch. The threats, the intimidation, the bullying, the ostracizing, the persecuting, the jailing, the fining, the mental torturing, on and on it goes.–We are few — Hold Fast, Adam Piggott
The region’s [Johnson city, TN] largest hospital system is now requiring employees to wear color-coded badges indicating whether they’ve been vaccinated against COVID-19.
Ballad Health announced the policy change on July 6 [2021], the Johnson City-based health care system confirmed to News Channel 11 on Tuesday.
…Employees who’ve been vaccinated will have the color blue on their badges. Unvaccinated employees will have the color orange on their badges.

“I welcome the coming period when I will have to wear the equivalent of a yellow star. Because my future friends and allies will know me by such a mark.” — Adam Piggott