![\"\"](\"https://i0.wp.com/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/12/PaletteScan-scaled.jpg?resize=1568%2C1742&quality=100&ssl=1\")
\n\n\n… 231.2 lbs…
\n… Heather Cox Richardson about the accomplishments of the administration, which are considerable… and yet, the people are not happy and Republicans may succeed in steering us to a one party state…
\n\n\nLove or hate what Biden has done, he has managed to pull a wide range of countries together to stand against Russian president Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian attack in Ukraine, and he has managed to get through a terribly divided Congress laws to make the lives of the majority better, even while Republicans are rejecting the idea that the government should reflect the will of the majority. That is no small feat.
\nWhether it will be enough to prove that democracy is still a viable form of government is up to us.1
\n
… i believe in the messy multiarchy… i hope more people can look at what is going on and support democracy… i am pessimistic about that…
\n… last night we watched Blue Bayou, a movie centered on the deportation of a Korean American who was adopted but for whom the appropriate paperwork had never been completed… apparently there are 25K to 50K adoptees from foreign countries that have the same problem… how is it possible that there isn’t some kind of understanding in the system that it isn’t the adoptee’s fault that the paperwork was not done or done properly?… how are we so tied to the rules that we can’t see our way to making an exception for this class?… how are we sending people back to countries they have never known and can’t even speak the language?… i read the wikipedia write up on the movie and learn that a law passed in 2000 made many in this legalization limbo citizens, it did not cover those 18 and older at the time…
\n… i read about bird flu killing tens of thousands of seabirds… i wonder if this is something related to climate change… i read the article to the end… it’s not… i remember B warning us that the flu was going around and to mask and glove up when we cared for the chickens this past winter… i wonder about the meat birds coming… tomorrow i think…
\n… because we have at least one in town, this article on Little Libraries caught my attention… the trend started in Wisconsin as a memorial to the mother of Todd Bol, who was a schoolteacher…
\n… monkeypox continues to grow as an issue around the globe… i feel like i am reading too much about this new disease of concern… i have read it is only spread through direct contact… is that changing?…
\n… an article on Tony Wang in Ain’t Bad… i almost don’t click on it, but then do… wait… i know this guy’s work!… he showed at the last Salon… he showed the very work published in the article… he was testing the sequencing… way to go Tony… hope we see you again!…
\n… Kitchen and Coffee after a walk down Main Street… not many pictures… not much that inspired an effort… it’s Sunday so i treat myself to hot chocolate… it is a spiritual experience… i really have to try making it at home…
\n… published yesterday’s notes… getting ready to publish yesterday’s group of photos… the things i look at… pay attention to… Gilbert O’Sullivan, _Alone Again (Naturally)_ playing on the sound system…
\n… haven’t heard that song in a long time…
\n… signs of Beacon Open Studios around town… wanted to go to some of the studios but the heat dampened my enthusiasm… lots of evidence of people in town… lots of cars parked on streets adjacent to Main Street, where they aren’t during the week… not as many people on the street as there are when the weather is better…
\n… it’s no longer projected to be 100 today… top out at 96 or 97… cooler tomorrow but more 90 degree weather heading our way next week…
\n… some more Etel Adnan…
\n\n\nWithin seconds, X rays and gamma rays have hit us at light speed. A cloud of nuclear particles at 5 million miles an hour engulfs everybody’s brain. We are monitoring the universe in real time.2
\n
… i read from dot to dot… making my way slowly through the book… usually, there is a passage that jumps out… today it was the above… the idea of monitoring the universe in real time… do we have nuclear particle receptors and don’t know it?… will we one day figure out how to tap into them?… will our minds then expand to be the universe?… will we loose our selves when this happens?… will it be hive mind?… i think about how, in my society, everything is geared towards being the unique, outstanding (good or bad) individual… we are to brand ourselves… make ourselves into a recognized and marketable quantity… is this the right way to think about being?… should we, instead, enjoy our selfness quietly… i oscillate on this… being part of the fabric, undistinguished, doesn’t bring resources… it does bring community?…
\n… just now i am thinking about how the patriarchal Oligarchs want to remake American society… i hope we can stop them…
\n… paid the bills…
\n… edited this morning’s pictures…
\n… bought the makings of ratatouille at the farmers market… especially wonderful dish in the summer with fresh vegetables… i will cook it on the Green Egg with the hope that it will develop a smokey flavor on top of the oven caramelized flavors this recipe develops… i post my intentions to Micro.blog and Facebook…
\nSea and Fog, Etel Adnan ↩︎
\nThis morning’s post by Heather Cox Richardson is encouraging… the noose is tightening around 45 and others…
\n\n\nThe House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol also has a great deal of information; it has now interviewed more than 800 people. On April 11, Salon columnist Chauncey DeVega published an interview with Hugo Lowell, who has been following the January 6 committee closely for The Guardian. Lowell’s observations support the idea of a conspiracy, although he noted evidence is still coming in. “The evidence so far points to the fact that Donald Trump knew and oversaw what happened on Jan. 6,” Lowell told DeVega. “Trump knew in advance about these different elements that came together to form both the political element of his plan, which was to have Pence throw the election, and the violence that took place on Jan. 6.”
\n
… the J6 committee is openly calling it a coup attempt led by 45…
\n\n\nRepresentative Jamie Raskin (D-MD), a member of the January 6 committee, suggested Lowell’s observation was correct yesterday when he told reporters: “This was a coup organized by the president against the vice president and against the Congress in order to overturn the 2020 presidential election.” Trump’s role in that coup will be the centerpiece of next month’s public committee hearings.
\n
… Marjorie Taylor Green will have to testify about her involvement in the January 06 coup attempt… in a court of law… under oath…
\n\n\nIn Georgia, voters are challenging the inclusion of Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene on the ballot this fall, arguing that she is an insurrectionist disqualified to hold office under the Fourteenth Amendment. Ratified after the Civil War, that amendment says any official who has taken an oath to support the U.S. Constitution and then engages “in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof,” cannot hold office. Greene took her oath of office on January 3, 2021, three days before the January 6 insurrection, and insisted the election had been stolen. “This is our 1776 moment,” she told Newsmax on January 5, 2021.
\n
\n\nGreene promptly sued to get a judge to block the challenge. Yesterday, federal judge Amy Totenberg decided that the case can go forward. Greene will have to testify on Friday, under oath, before a state administrative law judge in Atlanta. She will be the first member of Congress to testify under oath about the events of January 6. After the judge handed down the decision, Greene complained to Fox News Channel personality Tucker Carlson that “I have to go to court on Friday and actually be questioned about something I’ve never been charged with and something I was completely against.”
\n
… Friday will be an interesting day
\n20220420.02
\n", "date_published": "2022-04-20T04:37:05-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2022/04/20/this-mornings-post.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","january 6 commission"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2022/02/03/february-heather-cox.html", "content_html": "20220203-02
\nFebruary 2, 2022, Heather Cox Richardson
\n\n\nAnd so we are back to where we were in 2019, when Vindman first reminded us that in America, right matters. At long last, will most of us decide that it does?
\n
… it would be a good sign if it happens… not clear that it will… apparently the January 6 Committee will begin public hearings in April…
\n", "date_published": "2022-02-03T02:40:42-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2022/02/03/february-heather-cox.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","history"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2022/02/01/january-heather-cox.html", "content_html": "20220201-03
\nJanuary 31, 2022, Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American…
\n\n\n", "date_published": "2022-02-01T04:02:56-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2022/02/01/january-heather-cox.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2022/01/31/from-heather-cox.html", "content_html": "CNN reported tonight that former president Trump had not one but two executive orders prepared to enable his loyalists to seize voting machines after the 2020 election. One authorizing the Pentagon to seize the machines was made public as part of the investigation by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol. Another, authorizing the Department of Homeland Security, has been confirmed to CNN by a number of sources, but is not publicly available.
\n
20220131-03
\nFrom Heather Cox Richardson this morning…
\n\n\nLast night, at a rally in Conroe, Texas, former president Trump told supporters that if he runs for president and wins in 2024, he will pardon the January 6 insurrectionists. Observers note that this promise might encourage the bigger fish ensnared by the investigation to keep quiet; Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Inquirer noted that “Trump…is committing a form of obstruction of justice in full public view.” Others note that the promise of pardoning the insurrectionists might well become a litmus test for any Republican candidate in 2024.1
\n
… dark clouds building…
\n… i read Heather Cox Richardson and get the overwhelming impression that democracy is crumbling and there is little we can do about it… its not a good start to the day…
\n", "date_published": "2022-01-14T04:55:50-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2022/01/14/i-read-heather.html", "tags": ["politics","democracy","heather-cox-richardson"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2022/01/12/heather-cox-richardson.html", "content_html": "… Heather Cox Richardson post this morning is largely about voting rights… Biden and Harris went to Georgia and made a speech vowing to protect voting rights and urging legislators everywhere to stand up for Democracy… the Senate is the roadblock… the filibuster is the roadblock… Senators Manchin and Sinema and possibly a few others are the roadblock… all the news analysis is suggesting that Manchin and Sinema will not budge… i am presently skeptical about whether Democrats are going to be able to do anything… but, as Rachel Maddow might say… watch this space…
\n", "date_published": "2022-01-12T02:52:46-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2022/01/12/heather-cox-richardson.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","voting rights","democracy"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2022/01/07/first-notes-lbs.html", "content_html": "First notes…
\n228.8 lbs
\n… the weight loss trend comes to a halt… most likely water weight gain which is cyclical…
\n… Chas got me up extra early this AM… i think he had to go to the bathroom… i feel certain a nap will be necessary today… i can’t keep running on six hours of sleep every night… i feel a bit numbed, drained, not my usual ready to read and pay attention self… i did just rough out a number of Haiku…
\n… Heather Cox Richardson writing about January 6… it disturbs me that main stream media is openly discussing the possibility that Democracy won’t survive… 45 has grown stronger, not weaker… a sizable portion of the population is fine with autocracy… is maneuvering to impose minority will on the majority, a patriarchal, mostly white minority… the civil war all over again… the thought occurs to me… if the multiarchy ascends and runs the show, won’t the exploitation of minorities and people in general be challenged?… is this a sign that market capitalism can’t survive without slavery of one kind or another?… why, as E. F. Schumacher speculated, shouldn’t an economy be constructed around the principle of making every life better, allowing every individual to grow to their full and natural potential… why should people be forced into work that does not fulfill them or make them better human beings?…
\n… i have had the idea to do a piece on texts that give me the hint of a different way to do things… i want to post it… just, these writings point to a different way of looking at things, a different way of living… i am not clear yet on what they add up to, but they certainly point to something… i will share it and keep updating it… my great conundrum is this… how can a new way of looking at and doing things come about when the dominant world order is so… dominating… i imagine one needs to construct a hybrid that is able to operate on its own core principles but which plugs into the bigger system as required for it not to become an isolated utopia destined to collapse under the weight of its ideals… a pragmatic way of being based on some core principles… an alternative way of living that seeks to mitigate market capitalist exploitation… Braiding Sweetgrass, Buddhist Economics, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance are three texts that come to mind as offering an alternative path… my plan is to re-read these texts and see how my ideas might solidify…
\n", "date_published": "2022-01-07T03:40:57-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2022/01/07/first-notes-lbs.html", "tags": ["democracy","philosophy","self","heather-cox-richardson","autocracy"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2022/01/06/first-notes.html", "title": "First notes...", "content_html": "226.6 lbs
\n… five days of weight loss… three while pursuing the No S diet approach… also meals low in refined carbs like pasta…
\n… it is the one year anniversary of the riot at the Capital Building… the facts available point to it as an insurrection and are beginning to detail a planned overthrow of the government… that planning continues and it is uncertain what, if anything , will be done to counter the efforts happening around the country to suppress the vote and rig the voting system… the most likely action is one flying under the radar screen, mostly… a reform of the Electoral Count Act of 1887… 45’s attempt to seize power in a way that would have the pale varnish of legitimacy was built around weaknesses in the ECA… the lack of clarity on the powers of the VP to certify being one of them… there appear to be bi-partisan efforts to shore it up… the most widely publicized efforts are a number of voting rights bills that have passed the house but are stalled in the Senate with no Republican support… some change in the filibuster rules will be required to pass any voting rights act which, at the present moment, seems unlikely… i have given up hoping on that one… and then there is the work of the January 6 Commission… it appears they will be able to demonstrate conspiracy to overthrow the government but the question is, can they do it compellingly enough to shift the narrative?… and, if so, will it shift enough?… time will tell…
\n… in all of this, Liz Cheny continues to be my hero for the stand she is taking… she is attempting to take down 45 and his cronies before the rabid conservatives of her state vote her out of office… she appears to be one of the few Republicans with …a spine…
\n… yesterday i spent much of the day trying to free the castor wheels of my office chair… so much animal and human hair was logged in them that they have become immobile and are scratching the finish of the floor in my studio… i was only able to return three of five to fully spinning order… i found replacement castors on Amazon and ordered a set with rubberized wheels designed for hard floor surfaces… if i had known when i started where i would end, i would have jumped to the end…
\n… we watched Matrix Resurrection last night… or, rather, H watched it and i slept through the bulk of it… alcohol has been doing me in for the last many nights… slow down on that and i might make it through an evening’s worth of viewing… my sense of it was that it wasn’t as good as the first three…
\n… news, via Heather Cox Richardson, that citizens are revolting in Kazakhstan… Russia and Belarus have agreed to send “peacekeeping” troops to assist… the people are fighting the corruption and poor service of their government, which is authoritarian… there appears to be worry that the protests will spread to Russia and Belarus… the internet has been shut down and there are reports of clashes between government security forces and citizens with casualties…
\n… ordered a cast iron pot/pan to replace the last non-stick coated pan i have in the kitchen… i am looking forward to its arrival… i am hoping to be able to make Persian rice with Tadigh in it… one needs a good non-stick surface to do that… cast iron can be mostly non-stick, but usually not completely… the advice is to use extra oil when making the tadigh… i used gift card money sent by R to purchase it… i also bought traction devices for my shoes… i had to curtail my walk yesterday because the sidewalks were slick…
\n… i don’t expect to be encumbered by any household tasks today… hopefully just photo editing, reading, writing then cooking will be the order of the day…
\n… this morning i lay in bed and tried to count my breaths up to ten… its remarkably hard to do… after about half an hour i managed it and then got out of bed… the usual routine… put water on to boil, grind coffee beans, feed the cat, take meds, let the dogs down and out… because Fiona is a clever and determined escape artist i have been escorting her out into the brisk darkness and watching her closely… i have all the holes in the fence repaired, but we have thought this so many times only to learn she has found and exploited a new weakness apparent to her but not us… it was fun to watch her sniffing along the ground, following the trails of night critters across or under the leaf litter… we all came back in and i gave them treats, which is what they are up for anyway… then they went back to bed and i prepared my coffee and came up to start the writing/reading part of my day…
\n", "date_published": "2022-01-06T03:06:38-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2022/01/06/first-notes.html", "tags": ["film","food","45","filibuster","russia","heather-cox-richardson","liz-cheny","january-6-commission","no-s-diet"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/12/24/hcr-meter-the.html", "content_html": "\n… the big news is that January 6 committee may be considering criminal referral of 45 to the DC Federal courts… they are not compelled to take it up, but…
\n… the 45 admin’s involvement in creating the riot on January 6th is getting clearer… if anything is proven i fervently hope there will be consequences…
\n", "date_published": "2021-12-24T02:15:54-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/12/24/hcr-meter-the.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","45"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/12/21/heather-cox-richardson.html", "content_html": "Heather Cox Richardson, December 20, 2021…
\n… about the betrayal of Joe Manchin… makes a compelling case for an economy centered around ordinary people and how BBB would have helped create that… it notes that Goldman Sachs downgraded economic growth projections by 1% upon news of Manchin’s betrayal… there is more to this than meets the eye though… it sounds like someone in the administration really pissed him off and he is having a temper tantrum… he has also, from what i see, left the door open for a reformulation of the bill into something more to his liking… i suspect we haven’t seen the end of BBB… politics is complicated, there are always steps back and steps forward…
\n", "date_published": "2021-12-21T02:39:35-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/12/21/heather-cox-richardson.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","joe manchin"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/12/16/what-i-read.html", "content_html": "What i read…
\nHeather Cox Richardson, December 15, 2021… about the January 6 commission and the noose tightening around the administration of 45… about the build back better spending bill and Manchin’s insistence that the price tag come in under 1.75 trillion over ten years… about a defense budget with 25 billion more than 46 asked for for a single year… there is money for new technologies while preserving money for old technologies that provide jobs to constituents…
\nSenator Manchin, Keep Holding Out on Build Back Better, the Editors, National Review… Manchin is the lynchpin of Build Back Better… Heather Cox Richardson reports above that he will accept a bill with a 1.75 trillion price tag over ten years… this article tries to hold him to a statement early on that said 1.5 trillion was his limit… i suspect something will get passed in the end…
\nSinema Doubles Down on Filibuster Defense amid Democrats’ Pivot to Voting Bill, Caroline Downey, National Review… apparently Sinema remains a know on filibuster busting… a spokesman for Sineam:
\n\n\n“Senator Sinema has asked those who want to weaken or eliminate the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation which she supports if it would be good for our country to do so,” LaBombard told Politico. He said that there’s a risk that the measure gets “rescinded in a few years and replaced by a nationwide voter-ID law, nationwide restrictions on vote-by-mail, or other voting restrictions currently passing in some states extended nationwide.”
\n
DeSantis Introduces Bill Banning Critical Race Theory in Public Schools, Private Company Staff Trainings… Caroline Downey, National Review… my understanding is that Critical Race Theory is not taught in any K-12 school anywhere… that it is taught at the college level only and mostly in law schools… this article suggests that DeSantis’ bill would not only ban something that isn’t happening from K-12 programs, but reaches up to the college level and into the training programs of private companies… that would be a huge overreach that is suspect would not hold up in the courts… so, is he proposing it without expectation of it passing just to check off a box on his expected run for President?…
\nAre the Parents of the Michigan School Shooter Guilty of Involuntary Manslaughter? Jacob Sullum, Reason.com… this article argues that they may have been negligent, but that their actions, or lack thereof, do not rise to Involuntary Manslaughter… i suspect the author is correct on this point and so, this case becomes an argument for tighter gun control laws…
\nThe Attempted Republican Coup Should Be the Democrats’ Leading Message. A. B. Stoddard, The Bulwark.… i agree wholeheartedly with the opinion expressed in this article and have for some time… the threat to Democracy is the number one issue that needs to be dealt with…
\n\n\nThe events of January 6 were clearly planned and coordinated to some extent—to what extent we have yet to learn. And the same is true of the post-coup cover-up.
\nRepublicans must be made to answer for these facts at the next election. For two reasons: If they are not made to answer for it in 2022, then they never will be. And if aiding and abetting a coup doesn’t prove to be a political liability, then such attacks will be incentivized in the future.
\n
‘West Side Story’ and the American Melting Pot. Christian Thrailkill, The Bulwark… a glowing review of the new movie by Spielberg, though i already knew i wanted to see it… this was one of my favorite films growing up as i have always beens a sucker for stories of romance against the odds… accomplishments of any kind against the odds really…
\nAleksei Navalny: The Man vs. The Symbol. Benjamin Parker, The Bulwark… this article is interesting… heroes are rarely pure as the driven snow, often, far from it… we work with the heroes we have is the point of the article… it also gets me thinking about any kind of accomplished individual that has broken ground in new or courageous or new and courageous territory… humans are imperfect creatures, to say the least, and society moves forward none the less, often carried by heroes with major flaws…
\n\n\nDoes it degrade the thoughts of Navalny’s fans, employees, and followers to support such a man? It’s tempting, especially for Americans, to argue that racism and xenophobia ruin even the most vigorous advocacy for human and civil rights. But Russia has no equivalent of the 1619 Project. They went through a period of iconoclasm in the 1990s, tearing down Lenins and Stalins all over—and then they stopped.
\nPerhaps one day, Russians will have the luxury of arguing over whether to dismantle statues of Navalny for his manifestations of bigotry. But that luxury is, at this point, so far in the future that it is hard to even imagine. It would mean that democracy in Russia is so entrenched, so stable, so unthreatened that it would no longer need reminders of his sacrifice. Perhaps before we worry about whether or not a man such as Nalvany deserves statues, we ought to get to a place where erecting a statue to him is an option.
\n
Where’s the beef? Brent Orrell, The Bulwark… it strikes me as significant that this article is published in The Bulwark, a conservative leaning publication created at the beginning of the Trump Administration by conservative journalists who could not abide Trumpism and still can’t… there are some particularly interesting acknowledgements in the article:
\n\n\nOver many decades, the American economy has depended on a seemingly endless supply of workers (documented and not) willing to work for the sometimes parsimonious wages on offer in our advanced, globally-integrated, highly competitive, and skills-biased economy. If employees didn’t like conditions, well, there was always someone else anxious to take the work. Just five years ago, McDonalds had 50,000 applications lined up for 13,000 jobs.
\n
… note the in parenthesis part about workers, documented and not… i have long thought there was conservative hypocrisy on the issue of immigration and that their protestations of loose border policies had more to do with ensuring an undocumented (and therefore cheap) flow of workers into the country… that is how it looks to me anyway… sure, we need well controlled borders and immigration policy is a mess… but part of the reason for the mess is our unacknowledged dependence on undocumented labor… again, my opinion…
\n\n\nBut it goes beyond just working conditions and into less tangible, but no less real, issues with how the people who do this work are viewed and treated. Meatpacking jobs were (and are) disproportionately held by undocumented, refugee, and other immigrant workers in mainly conservative, rural states that left workers exposed to employer and government pressures and community indifference during the opening chapters of the COVID crisis. (emphasis added) The status of these workers as essential “outsiders” aggravated long-standing problems in an industry that had come to take access to a continuous flow of cheap labor as part of its business model.
\n
… and then there is this:
\n\n\nWe didn’t get here overnight. As one meat processing plant manager commented to NPR a few years ago, “Workers are really cheaper than machines. Machines have to be maintained. They have to be taken good care of. And that’s not really true of workers. As long as there is a steady supply, workers are relatively inexpensive (emphasis added)”, a quote that summarizes the situation better than anything else could. No doubt the market will eventually bring wages and working conditions into balance with supply and demand. For now, we know the answer to the age-old question, “Where’s the beef?”
\n
… inflation has become a big worry… as we are mostly on fixed income at this point, i am certainly not a fan of it… but to the extent it is about better wages, working conditions for workers, and a rational immigration policy, i am happy to learn to live with higher prices for the goods i purchase…
\n", "date_published": "2021-12-16T04:50:00-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/12/16/what-i-read.html", "tags": ["film","politics","heather cox richardson","work","joe manchin","ron desantis","kirsten sinema","school shootings","steven spielberg","aleksei navalny","immigration"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/12/09/beginning-the-day.html", "content_html": "Beginning the day…
\n… wake up at 2:00 AM for the bathroom… sleep fitfully, if at all, until 3:30 AM… i get up, Fiona hops off the bed, we leave the bedroom together… i weigh myself, 230.0 lbs, get dressed, follow Fiona downstairs… fill the kettle and put it on the stove… Fiona wants to go out, but because i now have to supervise her, she has to wait… clean the coffee pot, grind the coffee, take my medications, retrieve the cat food dish, clean it out, open a tin of cat food, dump it in the dish, return the dish to its stand at the top of the basement stairs… i go upstairs to get Chas… we return downstairs… the dogs and i go out the back door to the back garden… i follow Fiona to the way back, observe her peeing, we return to the back door where Chas is waiting… treats for the dogs when we come back in… then i go out the front door to put the garbage out to the street… on the way the smell of poop… when i return i flip the living room lights on and sure enough, a small pile on the rug by the gas fireplace… the coffee water is boiling, i turn it off and pour water over the coffee grounds then go to clean up the poop… while waiting for the coffee i read Heather Cox Richardson and find it at least not so depressing… apparently Biden has organized considerable financial pressure to be applied to Russia if Putin decides to invade Ukraine… Tucker Carlson is complaining that the Biden Admin is overreacting and that Russia is just beefing up defense of its borders… there was a time when few in positions of power and influence would support Russia, but Carlson has proven to be enameled of oligarchies and dictatorships… i imagine he wants to be dictator himself one day… there is a selfish streak in to much of the American population i have thought to myself… we emphasize individual liberty over the common good… it’s biting us in the ass right now… various actors in the previous administration are in a variety of phases of being cornered into testimony… will it all be done in time to make a difference?…
\n", "date_published": "2021-12-09T05:06:49-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/12/09/beginning-the-day.html", "tags": ["heather cox richardson","fiona","chas","russia","tucker carlson","biden-harris"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/12/08/what-i-read.html", "content_html": "What i read today…
\nHeather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American, December 07, 2021… the heroism and death of Messman Doris Miller, a black man, in WW II… he was on board the U.S.S. West Virginia in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked… he survived the sinking of the West Virginia but later perished when the U.S.S. Liscome Bay was sunk by a Japanese Torpedo, November 24, 1943…
\n\n\nI hear a lot these days about how American democracy is doomed and the reactionaries will win. Maybe. But the beauty of our system is that it gives us people like Doris Miller. Even better, it makes us people like Doris Miller.
\n
In Defense—God Help Us—of Lauren Boebert, Chris True… i read the article and understand the point being made, but on the fence about whether i agree… my great frustration is that individuals that “no decent person … should give the time of day” get the time of day, get traction, take cover behind the protections of the system they are working towards dismantling… it puts those of us who want to stop them at a great disadvantage… we may be at a place where lines have to be drawn… on the other hand, it is a slippery slope…
\n\n\nNo decent person should give Lauren Boebert the time of day. Congresswoman Boebert, however, is a different story. Congresswoman Boebert is representing over 700,000 people and those 700,000 people deserve the same representation in Congress as everyone else, even if that makes Democrats feel unsafe. Sticking to your principles often does._ \nInternational Court of Justice Rules Azerbaijan Must Stop Destroying Armenian Cultural Heritage in Artsakh, Yelena Ambartsumian… the ICJ apparently has the authority to refer its decisions to the UN Security Council which has the authority to do something about it… i am in sympathy based on what the article tells me, but wonder how straightforward the issue really is… last night Rachel Maddow’s opening monologue talked about the taking down of monuments to war heroes of the Confederacy… would the Confederacy, such as it exists today, have the right to appeal to the ICJ for relief?…
\n
… a cartoon by Guy Richards Smit in Hyperallergic… last week, on Deadline Washington, Donny Deutsch lamented that the people he talked to in his crowd (he’s pretty wealthy) weren’t particularly concerned with whether democracy survives or not…
\n\n \n\n\n
The Power of the Dog Is a Different Kind of Western Film, Ela Bittencourt, Hyperallergic…
\n\n\nIn Jane Campion’s elegant adaptation of Thomas Savage’s novel The Power of the Dog, nature is an instrument of both wonder and violence.
\nThe audacity of the original book comes from Savage combining a heated sibling rivalry, an illicit love story, the Western myths of male virility, and a murder mystery all within its slim pages.
\n
[How Marisol, “the True Trailblazer,” Paved the Way for Andy Warhol](https://hyperallergic.com/696348/how-marisol-the-true-trailblazer-paved-the-way-for-andy-warhol/ “How Marisol, “the True Trailblazer,” Paved the Way for Andy Warhol”), Karen Chernick… “Behind every great man there’s a great woman.”… Marisol was quite well recognized at the time, so, not living in the shadows… but… an interesting exhibition…
\n\n ![\"\"](\"https://i0.wp.com/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/12/10_Marisol_Andy_Marisol_Estate_ARS.jpg?w=791&quality=100&ssl=1\")
\n\n\n
Marisol, “Andy” (1962–63) (Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, image © Acquavella LLC (1962-63), © 2021 Estate of Marisol / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)
\nThe Hungry Eye: Eating, Drinking, and European Culture from Rome to the Renaissance, Leonard Barkan, review by Lauren Moya Ford, Hyperallergic… for art lover epicureans… there don’t appear to be recipes, but i suppose we can find our own…
\n… this image from the book catches my attention in particular… so many layers to dig through…
\n\n ![\"\"](\"https://i0.wp.com/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/11/3.48_Barkan_fig-scaled.jpg?resize=1568%2C2128&quality=100&ssl=1\")
\n\n\n
Joos van Cleve, “The Holy Family” (c. 1512-13) (the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
\n[New Study on NFTs Deflates the “Democratic” Potential for the Medium](https://hyperallergic.com/697239/new-study-on-nfts-deflates-the-democratic-potential-for-the-medium/ “New Study on NFT’s Deflates the “Democratic” Potential for the Medium”), Jasmine Liu, Hyperallergic… yesterday i upgraded my micro.com subscription to premium to take advantage of the new email signup feature and begin posting short videos which i call video stills… i was ambivalent about doing this because i have viewed these video stills as ideal for the NFTA world… it is interesting to see that the market is shaping up to be a reflection of the physical art world system of value creation and art distribution, where there are taste makers serving as intermediaries advising the well to do on their art purchases… i struggle with this system because it is exploitative and elitist and a direct reflection of the power structure in which art is created… artists don’t often make out well trying to participate in this system… i don’t have to make money from my art at present, so i don’t have to participate in the system if i don’t want to, and lately, i don’t want to… right now, i create my art and offer it for free on a platform that isn’t profiting from my free content…
\n", "date_published": "2021-12-08T04:41:35-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/12/08/what-i-read.html", "tags": ["film","politics","art","food","heather cox richardson","exhibitions","nft's","culture","donny deutsch"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/12/08/beginning-the-day.html", "content_html": "Beginning the day… i wake at 2:30 AM… stay in bed… get up at 3:30 AM… Fiona comes with me… i weigh myself, 230.8 lbs, get dressed, go down stairs, let Fiona out, fill the kettle, put it on the stove, take my meds and vitamins, feed the cat, let Fiona in, read HCR, which depresses me… she’s struggling with the idea that the game may be lost already, democracy may be on its way out… she is trying to have hope… i make the coffee, put a little cold water into my thermal mug, add a pinch of cinnamon, add a little agave, pour coffee into the mug, screw the top on, return to my studio/dressing room upstairs… Fiona is waiting for me on the studio bed… i start to settle down but Chas whines… i let him out of the bedroom where H is sleeping… Chas, Fiona and i return downstairs… i let them out… i read an article in The Bulwark arguing that Lauren Boebert should not be stripped of her committee assignments because of her Islamophobic comments aimed at representative Ilhan Omar… i am on the fence as to whether i agree or not… the author argues we should deplore and ignore citizen Boebert but we should not block congressperson Boebert from representing her 700K constituents… the dogs come back in, i give them and the cat treats, the dogs and i return upstairs… i let the dogs into the bedroom where H is sleeping and return to my desk… i spend the first 45 minutes organizing my journal… i have been reading through it at the rate of two weeks per day, which should have me finished by the end of the year…
\n", "date_published": "2021-12-08T03:12:07-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/12/08/beginning-the-day.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","democracy","fiona","chas","lauren boebert","ilhan omar","islamophobic"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/12/06/first-thoughts-morning.html", "content_html": "First thoughts…
\n… morning did not start well… very depressing post from Heather Cox Richardson, stopping just short of saying Democracy is dead in the United States… the urgency to protect Democracy that should be there, just isn’t… she quotes someone or writes that we need to imagine what actions are needed in a break the glass emergency… Democrats are faltering in a crucial moment… will they kill the filibuster and pass voting rights legislation?…
\n… and then there is this image from Representative Thomas Massie, (R)KY:
\n\n ![\"\"](\"https://cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFFyLUQoX0Acavro.jpg\")
\n\n\n
… in what world, on what planet, is this an acceptable way to celebrate this Christmas Holiday?… i am not Christian, but i always thought this holiday was about peace and good will towards humankind?… no more…
\n… the best i have been able to do on break the glass planning is to consider how i might leave the country… immigrate just over the border to Canada, or something…
\n… i calmly think, ok, there is one voter in my life that i might have a chance to turn… how many of us turning one voter away from the authoritarian march would it take to halt the march?… not that many… so… i must try… but how to do it?… it largely consists in turning that person away from Fox News… i wonder if i can have a conversation with them that asks the question, what are you afraid of?…
\n", "date_published": "2021-12-06T04:42:05-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/12/06/first-thoughts-morning.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","authoritarian","fascism","thomas massie"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/12/06/what-i-read.html", "content_html": "What i read today…
\nHeather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American, December 05, 2021: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/december-5-2021 ↩︎
\nEugene R. Fidell: https://www.thebulwark.com/ron-desantis-and-his-state-guard-arent-happening-in-a-vacuum/ ↩︎
\nAnna Botsford Comstock via Maria Popova, The Marginalian: https://www.themarginalian.org/2021/11/29/anna-botsford-comstock-trees-at-leisure/ ↩︎
\nUrsula K. Le Guin via Maria Popova, The Marginalian: https://www.themarginalian.org/2014/10/17/ursula-k-le-guin-gender/ ↩︎
\nWhat I Read Today…
\nFirst Thoughts
\n231.2
\n…HCR meter, depressing… the white patriarchy is winning… what can we do about it?… voting rights legislation would help… abortion rights legislation would help… none of that seems set to happen…
\n… i keep thinking about M… i keep thinking that they generally only watch Fox news and that because of that they have a very narrow view of the situation… they are only being told bits and pieces of the story with an overall picture painted that just isn’t what anyone would call truth… to some degree all news outlets offer up partial truths… they may be very factual in the stories they write, but story selection is another matter… there is no way to have an intelligent conversation with anyone about social and political issues if both parties aren’t taking in multiple sources of information… and who has time?… i barely have time and i have no job in the traditional sense… i will, rather than having political conversations, challenge M to get their information more broadly… then maybe we can have a conversation…
\n… i resent all this crap going on at this time in my life… but who gets to choose the crap that may or may not be going on during their lifetimes… what i am tasked with coping with pales in comparison to what many around the globe cope with…
\n… oral arguments on a case that challenges Roe v. Wade were heard by the Supreme Court yesterday… it seems likely that the law in question will be allowed to stand and that the standard for when the right to an abortion kicks in will become “undue burden” as opposed to setting the age of viability as the current court decisions in place do… so, undue burden will become that point at which a majority of women will recognize they are pregnant and are able to abort should they choose… in the case before the court, this rolls fetal age back to fifteen weeks, a little over three months… this is the point by which most women in the state of (Mississippi?, Missouri?) obtain an abortion… honestly, if this is the compromise we reach and even this Supreme Court upholds the right to an abortion, then i think we are as well off on the issue as we will be under the current juridical situation…
\n… it is still possible that Roe v. Wade will be completely undone, but it doesn’t sound like it to me… and then a string of cases from states across the country will refine the new conditions and the law will be settled at this level…
\n", "date_published": "2021-12-02T03:49:16-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/12/02/first-thoughts-hcr.html", "tags": ["heather cox richardson","abortion","patriarchy","family"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/12/01/first-thoughts-i.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… i have switched back to Firefox as browser after discovering that Safari didn’t play nice with many websites… a shame… both on the Safari and websites ends… at any rate, i will now have to update passwords in the Firefox environment as i was switching over to keychain… sigh… it is so hard to maintain a unified browsing and password environment…
\n… HCR meter about the booming economy (inflation not withstanding) and the January 6 commission… also about the news failing to celebrate the economy… two different spins on the future of inflation… HCR maintains that Jerome Powell told congress inflation would abate as supply chain issues got worked out… the news indicated that testimony was given to congress saying the opposite… i don’t remember if it was Powell or another economic official… the January 6 news is that there is evidence of 45 communicating with the “command center” at the Willard Hotel and January 5… and finally, news that Mark Meadows is starting to cooperate… will anything in the way of accountability ever come of it?…
\n… not feeling great this AM… sleep a little fitful… i am not rested…
\n… first day of December… i bought H a Tim Burton Nightmare Before Christmas Advent Calendar… she was pleased… now to work on everyone else’s gifts… i have ideas, just have to execute…
\n… did a course on optimizing SEO on Square Space websites… we have done probably 70% of what can be done… for some of what remains to be done, it isn’t clear that we should do it… in any case, with a little further tweaking i will be able to tell J that we are fully optimized…
\n… uploaded the Beached Stones series to my portfolio website… i submitted this series to Shots Magazine for their Earthly Delights call… i wonder how much of what gets published will be nudes, especially female nudes, thought the call for entries had a male nude… Earthly Delights references Hieronymous Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, a tryptic painted between 1510 and 1515… the tryptic is thought by some art historians to be a warning against lust, suggesting that hell awaits those who loose control of themselves… my submission references female genitalia with photographs of stones on the beach around which ocean waves have eroded the sand in suggestive ways, at least to my mind… so my entry is both a reference to lust and configured from earthly materials… it is perfect really, but i have been disappointed by the editors before…
\n\n ![\"Garden](\"https://uploads7.wikiart.org/images/hieronymus-bosch/the-garden-of-earthly-delights-1515-7.jpg!Large.jpg\")
\n\n\n
First Thoughts
\nRecently, Salon columnist Chauncey DeVega conducted an interview with Miles Taylor, the chief of staff to Trump’s Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen who published a New York Times op-ed in 2018 as “Anonymous" claiming that he was part of a resistance movement in the Trump White House. Taylor told DeVega that Republican congresspeople are worried they will be attacked if they cross Trump. “I’m talking about former Cabinet secretaries, sitting members of Congress and others who personally confessed to me, ‘I don’t think I can join you in rising up against this guy because I’ve got to worry about my family’s safety.’” Taylor said. “I didn’t anticipate how much I was going to hear that as a response. They would say to me, “Look, I’ve got kids and this is too crazy right now.”1
\n… HCR meter turned decidedly downward… the only thing that matters right now is passing voting rights legislation which, as far as she and i can tell, is on the back burner… the day is rapidly approaching beyond which it will be too late… that the Democrats can’t get their shit together to do the one thing that will preserve democracy and make anything else they want to do possible is utterly tragic… Rome is burning and even they are fiddling…
\n… i keep thinking about M’s belief that the insurrection wasn’t an insurrection… it makes me so angry because i know how uninformed they are about what is going down in the country because i know they principally watch Fox news… i am in despair about it because i love them and because they are representative of the damage Fox news has done in this country…
\n… i also marvel at this country’s inability to hold anyone significant accountable for misdeeds… it is beyond comprehension that our system should be so weak as to be incapable in this regard… was it ever strong enough?… or did it depend on the good will of it’s citizens to keep the rails up… and now they are divided and unable to do so…
\n… signs of the growing threat of authoritarian/fascist rule… a patriotic and militaristic mural painted on the side of a county building to honor veterans on veterans day… this year’s Christmas tree lighting ceremony opened with the National Anthem and closed with God Bless America… neither of these things have happened before during the 15 years we have lived here… my perception is they are happening now because of the growing threat from the right…
\n… i really dislike starting the day with these thoughts and feelings churning around in my mind… i would prefer something more optimistic…
\nRichardson, Heather Cox, Letters from an American, November 29, 2021 ↩︎
\nFirst Thoughts
\n… happy to be back to routine… that first hot cup of coffee in the morning… cat, dogs, and then the quiet of the house… bliss…
\n… HCR meter, justice?… remembering Boss Tweed and his inevitable fall into disgrace… a few contemporary characters being brought to justice?… bankruptcy?… i suppose she is offering some hope… i have been gloomy about the prospects for life as we have known it continuing… the fascists are winning right now and it boggles my mind that they are… most of the news personalities couch their assessment in hope and optimism that the fascist juggernaut will get turned around… maybe that is what HCR’s post is about, signs that it might get turned around… i don’t feel the optimism because the individuals that matter in this are not being brought to justice, not suffering consequences and are buttressing their position for the midterm and and 2024 elections…
\n… the Democrats could do something about it, but so far have been unable to because of a couple of senators unwilling to part with the filibuster in a meaningful way… there is time, but not much… i am not optimistic…
\n… i have begun to figure out how we might leave the country if the worst happens… my most recent idea is to live just over the Canadian border where we could get to medical facilities in the US… research is needed…
\n… thanksgiving tomorrow… as usual, we have been relegated to the cheeses… it saddens me that i am never able to cook for TG… but, family is priceless… i won’t be able to drink alcohol as we will have to drive back… we are planning to bring the dogs and let them stay in the car… it will be cold though…
\n… the first snow predicted on Monday… winter is here…
\n… frustration with my photography… with not being able to make anything more out of it than a huge collection of images made day after day after day… i lack the conditions to pull them together into something… at least i tell myself that… what i really need is a way to focus them into presentations… for a while i was doing image poems… small sets of related images… should i try that again?… i think too of the model of Museum Bhavan, Dayanita Singh… as i write the preceding i look up the proper spelling of Bhavan, and then find my way to her website which hasn’t been updated in some time… she talks about her process, how, the museums came about, developing over time to what they have become… something like them is what i need to be doing… i decide i should read everything i can find about Ms. Singh and the Museum Bhavan project… it is the model for what i should be doing…
\n", "date_published": "2021-11-24T03:05:06-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/11/24/first-thoughts-happy.html", "tags": ["photography","politics","heather cox richardson","my photography","danyanita singh"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/11/22/first-thoughts-and.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… and so begins the day of purging… hardest part of a colonoscopy… the dreaded prep… perhaps the silver lining being that i will head into turkey day with some room to spare, ha, ha…
\n… i have the Gregorian chants going this AM… and i did my morning stretches which i had gotten out of the habit of…
\n… sleep last night was fitful… awake at midnight, awake at 1 AM, awake at 3 AM up at 4 AM…
\n… i am a little anxious, about the prep, about getting to the procedure, about what the procedure might reveal… each one of these things the necessary journey through the portal of having it done, hopefully for 5 years, at least for 3 years…
\n… HCR meter, broken but very necessary to be played again and again, record… Democracy is under threat… the struggle between the mostly white patriarchy and the rising multiarchy is real… and it is far from determined which will win… by 2024 we could be heading into autocracy or, worse, fascism… this is not the system i wanted to spend my old age in… and i shouldn’t forget the threat of war on the eastern front, Ukraine… will Putin attack?… will NATO assist Ukraine?… interesting times will continue… are we heading towards a blood letting?…
\n… i have decided the extra money i have accumulated will be spent to whatever degree it needs to be on making a nice Christmas… i am gathering ideas for gifts, planning ahead… i will work on a new computer in the new year…
\n… back to the political situation… i saw what all this was years ago… i saw the desperation of the patriarchy to secure control before their numbers were insufficient to do so… i knew the struggle would be very difficult but i had optimism that in the end they would not succeed… we should know that in the pretty near future… at this point, it all hinges on voting rights legislation… the infrastructure bills will be helpful in making people feel better about their economic lives… this is important, but not determinative by itself… it needs the assistance of voting rights legislation which requires that Manchin, Sinema and any other moderate democrat attached to the filibuster be willing to do a carve out, at minimum, on voting rights… my perception being that if this does not happen the game is lost…
\n", "date_published": "2021-11-22T03:12:11-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/11/22/first-thoughts-and.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","health","sinema","manchin","colonoscopy"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/11/20/first-thoughts-frustrating.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… frustrating morning… weight way up… computer crashed last night and needs to be rebooted… the rebooting takes time… is so slow… a new computer soon…
\n… a dog pooped in the living room, not sure which… one was lingering, eating the poop surreptitiously… life’s continuous chaotic mess, everything trying to fall apart and cover itself in dust… we, resisting the chaotic tide with varying degrees of success until we can’t anymore… our houses and things miss us when we are gone, but they quickly fall into the hands of new chaos resisters with new visions of the sea walls to be erected against the tidal flow…
\n… while waiting for my computer to boot up i start reading Shifting the Silence, by Etel Annan… i read some paragraphs yesterday and loved them… today, i read those same paragraphs and some beyond and it doesn’t really make sense… too dependent on what might be thought common knowledge but isn’t… personal reveries that seem pretty when read but don’t make sense when i try to unpack them… i come across a paragraph that someone has underlined, maybe several someones have underlined and i think… this reads like it sits on the edge of profound, but i can’t really make out its meaning… if there is a secret being shared, i have no idea what it is…
\n… i have to admit to myself that i may not be in a receptive frame of mind given the morning’s frustrations and disappointments… i should save if for later but then the “Creative Cloud Helper” needs to repair itself… i assume it is because Lightroom crashed last night trying to back up the catalog… i need a new computer capable of finishing the task… will J pay me soon?…
\n… i give up on Creative Cloud Helper… taking forever to load, on reloading it wants to repair itself again… it’s such a messed up program unit, why can’t they sort it out?… the problem it has is well known… there ought to be a way to permanently resolve it…
\n… it is already 6:20 and i feel i have made little progress in the normal morning rituals… sidetracked by technology that should work better but isn’t…
\n… HCR meter… it’s a wash… lots to celebrate in the House’s passage of the Build Back Better bill… though there will now be a process in the Senate and who knows if it will survive… the indicators suggest that it has been worked out to be largely palatable to the Senate Democrat moderates, so maybe… but then she talks about the Rittenhouse acquittal, which the right is trumpeting and which liberal pundits believe will lead to rifle toting thugs at any sort of demonstration, especially those by black people, brown people, women, etc… she raises the specter of the Civil War… everything in the news media i follow suggests that some kind of civil war is coming… Democrats are trying to head it off with money in peoples pockets, new roads and bridges, broadband for all… hoping enough people will feel enough better about things that they will turn away from the conspiracy theories, especially the lie that the election was stollen… 45’s own niece called him the most dangerous man on earth… well, the most dangerous to the country… for a while he had his finger on the triggers of nuclear Armageddon… but it was clear that he would be back, and if not him, some one of a horrible group of individuals who would burn it all down and claim what was left for themselves… remake it in the image of white men as it was meant, according to them, to be… liberals accused of reigning down marxism on the people with their efforts to spend money to make those peoples lives better!… and the people believing it!… three card monty with the hopes, dreams and fears of the people…
\n… i have only read two dozen paragraphs of Etel Adnan and already i write like she does… i am a mimic… i noticed this a long time ago as i spent time in places with accents different to mine… the south, Great Britain… i adjust myself to what i hear and read apparently… when i was reading haiku, i made micro poems daily… no longer reading them, i have lost the knack… now it’s a kind of prose poetry that amounts to a continuum of reverie about?… a long life coming to a close… this is the territory i am heading into… it seems unfair to be heading into it at a time when things could devolve into complete chaos… do we have the energy and resilience to survive?… do we want to?… shouldn’t we have been allowed to mellow out in our golden years?…
\n", "date_published": "2021-11-20T04:48:09-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/11/20/first-thoughts-frustrating.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","45"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/11/16/first-thoughts-fiona.html", "content_html": "First thoughts:
\n… Fiona spay day… a little nervous… will be glad to have it over with… then on to the recovery and getting myself mentally and physically ready for a colonoscopy… a year overdue… a major step forward in the doctoring that needs doing…
\n… speaking of things intestinal… clearly had a bug yesterday of the sort that makes me pretty unhappy, not because of unfortunate bowl movements, but because of an all over achey feeling that really wears me down… a malevolent organism on the march… i feel better this AM… i also re-started my probiotic supplement this AM… the subscription came undone due to some rearrangement of my prime account at Amazon…
\n… colonoscopy, then thanksgiving next week…
\n… an edge of frustration that few people read what i write… i tell myself that isn’t the point… writing every day and publishing everyday is the point… a product of the now… every day… when i review it… i like what i have done… so, keep doing it…
\n… part of me thinks that my writing should be dense with profound understanding… that is not the point unless profound understanding is composed of the minutia of my life… that’s what this blog is about… the day in and day out record of some of what i pay attention to… an intentional recording…
\n… as i read Denton Welch’s journals, i find profound understanding largely absent… it is a detailed and well written account of what was important to him and much of it is pretty self centered… there is the occasional passage that dives a little more deeply into the broad human condition…
\n… is my writing as self centered?… it is to some degree but, i like to think, also big picture focused to some degree…
\n… i read a forecast in The Economist that indicated the most likely result of the midterms will be a Republican controlled house, Democrat controlled Senate… short of disaster… all the big stuff needs to get done in the next year…
\n… HCR meter mostly about the infrastructure package (a BFD) and how far right extremists are seeking to punish any republican that voted for it… there were 13 in the house who did… it is being portrayed as the another step in a socialist takeover of the country… one hopes the benefits will become apparent by the midterms and perhaps the house will stay under Democratic leadership… a fellow can dream…
\n", "date_published": "2021-11-16T03:57:33-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/11/16/first-thoughts-fiona.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","fiona","denton welch","the journals of denton welch"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/11/11/first-thoughts.html", "title": "First Thoughts", "content_html": "… up at 5 AM… an hour later than i like… this jams me up on the things i like to do prior to heading out for a walk…
\n… there is research that suggests there are heart benefits to going to bed between 10 and 11… i have been trying that but i am not sure it is working for me… i had been going to bed between 9 and 10 with the desire to be up by 4 AM… this gives me a good amount of time to write and read in the morning… so maybe that is my rhythm… i’ve always been early to bed and early to rise…
\n… an exhausting day devoted to errands for the household… i have been very frustrated with the way activities that are not photography, reading and writing are intruding an hours devoted to those things… it has been a real struggle lately to keep that from happening… today, J will claim a certain amount of my time… tomorrow, a friend for dinner, which will require an early start on dinner prep… sigh… there are times when i’d like to take off to a cabin in the woods and hibernate… i’m quite good at being alone…
\n… HCR meter, ominous rumblings in Europe… Russia threatening Ukraine… Russia and Belarus pumping immigrants into Poland in an effort to inflame right wing dissidents and destabilize the region…
\n… i was thinking about the benefits of having lived in a pretty stable country… there have been times of unrest, but generally speaking, the average citizen could go about their business and depend on the world around them to behave pretty much the way it did the day before… there are so many people around the world for whom that isn’t true… what must be the loss in human product and accomplishment?… are we heading into a time where the world will twist and turn in ways we can’t possibly predict?… where faith in anything is impossible?…
\n… Cape Malay Pickled Fish for dinner last night… two days of marination in pickling juices… it was tasty… not clear that i would go to the trouble again… maybe…
\n… i did a search for recipes for CMPF and discovered a bunch of them… it appears i used the only recipe (from Martha Stewart), that fries the fish after marinating in the pickling juices for a couple of days… every other recipe cooks the fish before marinating… hmmm… i now have to cook this again…
\n", "date_published": "2021-11-11T04:59:27-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/11/11/first-thoughts.html", "tags": ["food","heather cox richardson"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/11/10/first-thoughts.html", "title": "First Thoughts", "content_html": "… this morning it starts to feel like the downhill race to Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year… the middle of Week 46, less than seven weeks to go…
\n… HCR meter encouraging… the case for holding 45 accountable is being built, slowly, steadily… the Trumpublicans get crazier and crazier… Representative Gosar only the latest iteration of bat shit crazy with his tweeted anime wherein he decapitates(?) AOC… there is justifiable outrage… all the Trumpers in congress care about is disciplining the 13 congress men and women who voted for the infrastructure bill, a broadly popular bill that their states all desperately need… absolute loyalty to the party is all they care about… it is a necessary condition for authoritarian rule… this quote from Liz Cheney is amazing:
\n_ “In this time of testing, will we do our duty? Will we do what we must? Will we defend our Constitution? Will we stand for truth? Will we put duty to our oath above partisan politics? Or will we look away from the danger, ignore the threat, embrace the lies and enable the liar?”_ she said. “There is no gray area when it comes to that question. When it comes to this moment, there is no middle ground.”1
\n… i am in love with Liz Cheney… a politician with strong integrity… i suspect i disagree with most of her politics, but on the issue of where we are and what we need to do she is bang on…
\n… i continue to struggle with refining what i am doing photographically… struggle is probably too strong a word… i am evolving and refining what i am doing…
\n… oh my, did i finally turn off autocapitalize?… it seems i did!… so exciting… no more having to escape capitalization!…
\n… back to what sort of photographer am i?… i have begun to center on the iPhone as my camera of daily choice… easier, lighter, and damn, image quality is getting so good!… this, coupled with the very easy workflow of native camera app to Ulysses to Micro.blog has pushed me in the direction of publishing photos as i go, without editing, without careful selection of images to include… photography (and writing) of-the-now… i am publishing photographs in color, some of which i later import into Lightroom, turn to black and white and edit more careful in general… i have decided to be increasingly selective with that group, while maintaining a broader selection on the iPhone photo app… in color… part of me wanted to share color photographs with the Salon last night… instead i prepared a selection of images in black and white from the past ten days… i did not present them as there were an abundance of photographers wanting to show their work, but i reviewed that set several times and i feel good about it…
\n… so, the practice is evolving as both an of-the-now practice and one that then filters the of-the-now body of work into a more considered body of work with a focused and edited sensibility to it… this is the body that will coalesce into portfolios, book projects, photo poems…
\n… H wound up in a much better mood yesterday afternoon and evening… they went for a walk with Chas, an idea they sneered at when i suggested it in the morning… “it’s boring, my back hurts” they told me… they did the dishes while i was Zooming with my Salon buddies… i have this nagging question about yesterday morning… did they, for some reason, conscious or not, feel the need to torpedo my good mood and high spirits?… they did an excellent job of it… i can’t help but wonder…
\n… on the alcohol front… last couple of nights i have limited myself to beer… this seems to be working out… no mildly debilitating effects the morning after… for some reason, perhaps its volume of liquid, i am not as prone to overdoing it with beer… and last night’s meal was kielbasa roasted on a bed of onion, red pepper and red cabbage, glazed with peach preserve and mustard, served with mashed potatoes… beer was a perfect accompaniment, though Corona might not have been the perfect beer for the meal…
\nVia Letters from and American, November 09, 2021, Heather Cox Richardson. ↩︎
\n… frustration and irritation yesterday… too many intrusions on time set aside for writing and photographing… too much to do to acquire groceries, cook meals, maintain house and yard… too little help from H… i am determined to hold my creative time sacred and inviolable…
\n… and, on the creative front… i am moving towards something new yet old, something i know the broad outlines of, if not the specifics… i am continuously refining it… making clearer what i am doing… the major elements of it are the Notes On Attention Paid blog, the concentration on the phone camera as principle camera… the development of a new workflow centered on the smartphone, Micro.blog, Ulysses, a writing, walking and reading practice… working against that system is my weakening eyesight… what i really want to do is edit on the iPhone exclusively, but it is difficult with my aging eyes… i have grown tired of the cumbersome Lightroom… i have begun thinking that editing photographs to the nth degree is a waste of my time in the system of make and post possible with the camera phone… i have all of this camera equipment that i no longer seem to need… this new way of producing and delivering is, interestingly, allowing me to bring to fruition what has been at the core of my effort all along… a daily cataloging of observation… nothing more… nothing less… and it is rendered on the www… the complex of tools has finally fallen into place for a seamless and efficient workflow…
\n… HCR meter, the shit show that is the Republican Party… generally it is a race to see whether they implode or seize control of the government for the rest of my life… Big Bird is a villain for promoting vaccinations for children which they have done since the 70’s… conservatives are currently dying from COVID at more than three times the rate of liberals… the result of conservative anti vaccination stance… i wonder if it will have any impact on elections?… conservatives are already dealing with a minority of the population for support… justice department announces indictments on ransome ware criminals and seize their ill gotten gains… it is one year until the midterm elections and there is so much to do… will voting rights ever become a priority?…
\n", "date_published": "2021-11-09T03:19:22-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/11/09/first-thoughts.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","big bird","culture wars","my photography"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/11/07/heather-cox-richardson.html", "title": "Heather Cox Richardson Meter: What Republicans Mean by Socialism", "content_html": "… AKA, HCR meter…
\n… in this morning’s post, HCR reports that Republicans immediately intensified the branding of Democrats as Socialists upon the passage of the bi-partisan infrastructure bill… she points out, as she has several times in the past, that what Republicans mean by Socialism has little to do with Socialism as a governing system which the American people, Republicans and Democrats, have never come close to endorsing…
\n… what Republicans actually mean by “Socialism” is anything that, in their opinion, redistributes wealth through taxation to benefit those without wealth… this dates back to the post civil war era when, initially white southerns, but eventually white northerners too, reacted to former slaves, now free men (women don’t get the right to vote for another 53 years) having the right to vote, which they did in large numbers, electing numerous African American legislators who promptly pursued the interests of their communities by getting money allocated for roads, schools, etc… find her more complete rendering of the history of Socialism branding here…
\n", "date_published": "2021-11-07T04:47:45-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/11/07/heather-cox-richardson.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","socialism"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/11/06/first-thoughts.html", "title": "First Thoughts", "content_html": "… coffee made… dogs let out and treated… Gregorian chants cranked up…
\n… i had two modest cocktails last night… went to bed feeling a little headachy… woke up feeling the same… it appears i don’t tolerate alcohol anymore… at least, not very much of it… a good thing?…
\n… we watched Dune last night… wonderful film though it ends abruptly… it ends the way the premier of a new series might end, with a clear promise there will be more… the story is far from told to completion and i think i now understand why it simultaneously appeared on HBO… because it is going to be a series… the next Game of Thrones?…
\n… it reminded me of the sci-fi series Raised By Wolves… Dune had very similar vibes in the way the story played out and the cinematography…
\n… we enjoyed J’s visit yesterday… they seem generally ok, though i got the feeling there is struggling going on there… they put a good face on it… but… they have a new car… a CRV… they are leasing… they have half the income we do and we stretch a bit to afford ours… hmmm…
\n… well below freezing last night… the last components of my freeze protection system for the planter tanks arrived… hoping it’s not too late for the rosemary… trying to see if i can overwinter it…
\n… been feeling a little like i am catching a cold… have been spending time in cafe’s as the cold weather arrives… trying to see where my winter get warm quarters will be… Kitchen and Coffee gets too busy too early… still not comfortable with indoor environments with numbers of people…
\n… HCR meter this morning upbeat… unemployment report way better than expected… half a million new jobs, unemployment rate down to 4.6, a number the Congressional Budget Office projected wouldn’t be reached until the end of 2023… and, the hard infrastructure bill passed congress last night and will go to President Biden to be signed into law… a handful of Republicans even voted for it… the soft infrastructure bill is still being negotiated… moderates have promised progressives in writing that they will work with them towards the passage of the reconciliation package… before congress breaks for the holidays?…
\n… and what about voting rights?… the elephant in the room… something has got to be done about voting rights…
\n… i find my way to an opinion piece on Politico by Charles Sykes… it discusses the domination of the Democratic Party infrastructure by mostly white, college educated, people… he accuses the party of having shifted too far to the left under their influence and of being out of touch with the more centrist working class voters who outnumber the college educated by a 2-1 margin… i get a little bit of that vibe from H, who accuses just about everyone on the right of being racist and homophobic… Sykes reminds me that echo chambers can skew one’s understanding of reality…
\n", "date_published": "2021-11-06T04:11:31-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/11/06/first-thoughts.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","dune 2021","charles sykes","raised by wolves"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/11/05/first-thoughts.html", "title": "First Thoughts", "content_html": "… an irritating stretch of minutes… dog poop in the living room… confusion about whether a file should be deleted or not… deleted, recovered, deleted again… computer choking and delaying in the process…
\n… J is coming to visit… love J but getting tired of entertaining getting in way of other productive work… ready to be a hermit for a while…
\n… HCR meter… back on the voting rights broken record… at least some senators resistant to filibuster alteration are starting to say it may be necessary… the gerrymandering appears to be really bad, as expected… congress needs to step in… Republicans need to be kicked to the curb… my humble opinion…
\n… had a bad day yesterday with aftereffects of alcohol the night before… didn’t really drink that much and only wine, and yet, i had headache and general malaise all day long… no alcohol last night, no signs of suffering today…
\n… harvested tarragon yesterday… put it in the drying rack… with sage, oregano and thyme… clips and protective fabric arrived for the planter tanks… now i need the hoops which come today… just in time… need to get them installed today as temps drop into the 20’s tonight…
\n… wondering about planting some garlic… i think i may try it… i have one tank cleared and almost ready to go…
\n… made the most delicious pork chops last night… locally raised meat from Nature’s Pantry freezer section… cooked to perfection with the pre-salting (at least an hour up to several hours in the refrigerator liberally salted all over)…
\n… i had a dream with S and B in it… we were in some small town at something like a diner… i was bragging about my pork chops to them (accomplished chefs and restaurant owners)… S got sick to their stomach (not over my pork chops)… tried to find a bowl for them to puke in, but couldn’t, so brought paper towels… when i return, everything seems normal and happy… can’t find the expected mess… then i woke up…
\n", "date_published": "2021-11-05T02:13:44-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/11/05/first-thoughts.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","voting rights"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/11/04/first-thoughts.html", "title": "First Thoughts", "content_html": "… had to switch keyboards… the wireless keyboard, which i spilled coffee on quite a while ago, was starting to get gummy… the cold weather causing the keys to gum up and stick because of the sugar-coffee-water spilled on it… was working fine over the summer… the colder weather seems to bring back the gummy…
\n… dinner with E&B last night… very nice time… talked about many things… they, at the end, pressing their concerns about rent control being considered and likely to pass at city council… they seemed to be saying that property owners and business owners in Beacon have been unable to stop this or even have a debate… i gleaned that they wanted a debate on the issues but it isn’t clear how we get there… the Republican Party is absent from the table in Beacon… business interests are absent from the table too?… they are perhaps thinking educating H will educate the many people H is in touch with…
\n… truth is, nobody wants the burden to fall on themselves alone… they suggest minimum wage adjustments to help people with limited means rather than promoting large business interests in Beacon… wouldn’t this make it harder for businesses to make their nut?…
\n… lots of Democratic hand wringing happening at the national level after the elections… HCR points out that the handwringing is overreaction… it was a mixed bag, a mixture of wins and losses for the Dems… even the Yungkin victory in Virginia may have a silver lining… it was achieved while holding 45 at arms length… could this be the start of Republicans moving a little towards the center?… if so, it would be a good thing…
\n… HCR meter focused on the growing authoritarianism on the right… the critical race theory boogie man is being used to bludgeon educators and rile up parents (suburban, mostly white voters)… she points out that authoritarian movements across the board attack the educator class as part of their playbook…
\n", "date_published": "2021-11-04T02:54:26-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/11/04/first-thoughts.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/11/03/first-thoughts.html", "title": "First Thoughts", "content_html": "… Republican Glen Yungkin won the Virginia governor race… Yungkin is widely viewed as a Trumpian Republican and many will view it as a warning sign that the far right is poised for gains in the Midterms and could win back the presidency in 2024… it is, of course, too early to know what it really means… a Republican win is consistent with history in Virginia where a gubernatorial candidate of the opposing party to the President of the United States is the common choice of voters… why this should be is not clear to me, but it is the history of the situation… it will be interesting to see what the turnout numbers are… that will be more indicative of whether there is energy on the Democratic side or not…
\n… the thought that is bugging me more has to do with the mess that the infrastructure negotiations have been in Washington… a theory that has currency with Authoritarian regimes around the world is that Authoritarianism is able to respond more quickly and effectively and consistently (when they want to) to changing events around the world and the fast pace of technological development… the Biden/Harris administration is trying to challenge that perception but the difficulty Democrats are having passing a broadly popular with the public infrastructure bill seems troubling in this regard… at least one commentator, Democrat Mark Warner from Virginia, suggested that failure to have passed an infrastructure bill of any kind hurt the chances of Terry McAuliffe in the race… given historical trends in Virginia mentioned above, maybe it would have made a difference, maybe not… but the broader theme of whether Democracies are too cumbersome for the present world environment is a legitimate question and the jury is out on that…
\n… this mornings post from Heather Cox Richardson suggests that last night’s election results across the nation were a mixed bag with no clear indication of future national winning strategies for either party… in fact, it seems that voters voted in line with the degree to which their state is conservative or liberal than anything else…
\n… i had a productive day yesterday… worked right up to 6 PM… i made my first “In This Year” post in which i photograph an inscribed date i find on my walks (usually on a building, but sometimes scrawled in random patches of concrete) and then look up what happened in that year… i find it is an interesting exercise in grounding oneself during times that seem tumultuous… a somewhat reassuring find is that tumultuous years are common in history and that things often work themselves out without bringing down the present order… though not always… one will also find a record of eras that come to an end… what is always the case is that life goes on, sometimes in a better way for the general population, sometimes in a worse way… Steven Pinker author of Better Angels of our Nature1, argues that the overall trend is for the better and that Enlightenment Humanism is the foundation of that better trend… i loved the book, especially it’s grounding in Enlightenment Humanism philosophy… it is completely in line with my own philosophical stance in the world… however, those principles are under severe attack and one can imagine everything “going to hell in a hand basket” as that enlightenment order crumbles… hello new dark ages?… or is something else afoot?…
\n… it seems odd that Joe Biden, in some ways a relic of the past, is the standard bearer for Enlightenment and Humanist principles… a true believer in the “Better Angels of our Nature”… a last gasp?… the optics at present don’t seem good…
\n… i am feeling like Ken Wilber’s Sex, Ecology, Spirituality would be an important book to read right now… an important concept that i want to review is that every next level of being subsumes and incorporates into itself the preceding levels of being and is dependent on those levels of being that came before it, yet none of the levels of being that came before it are dependent on it… that is… split out of this next level of being, preceding levels function perfectly well on their own… the thought that i have in reviewing current technological trends is that a way is being prepared for the appearance of a next higher level of being… a level of being composed of all that is now and a more comprehensive intelligence brought on by advances in data processing…
\nThis Wikipedia article has an extensive critique of Better Angels that is worth reading as is the book itself. ↩︎
\n… HCR meter, democracy is on the ropes… pointing to the spreading and increasingly blatant disinformation campaign in progress by the far Right… this morning’s stars are Marco Rubio and Tucker Carlson… Rubio apparently gave a speech that would have been unimaginable just a year or two ago… a speech that indicates he is banking on victory for authoritarianism and wants to be on the right side of it when we get there… another essay in Mother Jones names Fox News and Tucker Carlson in particular, as fascist propagandists… this has got to be beaten back… my belief is that Democrats in congress could make it easier by eliminating the filibuster, at least on two issues… voting rights and the debt ceiling… i too believe that democracy is on the ropes and that we have precious little time to save it…
\n… a disrupted day yesterday… plumbing problems escalated significantly when sewage began backing into the toilet in the basement and then overflowing… the stench… the mess… the frantic calls to the plumber… the $200 check handed to the plumber for fifteen minutes spent clearing the house trap which had become clogged… the flow of the entire day disrupted… it is remarkable how much i depend on my expected ordered flow of things happening…
\n… the backing up of the house trap seems an interesting metaphor for what is happening to the plumbing of Democracy…
\n… i did manage to make some quick revisions on J’s website and their LinkedIn page… their LinkedIn page is a bit of a mess… will have to help them with that…
\n… at the top of David Corn’s article, this image of Tucker Carlson…
\n\n ![\"\"](\"https://www.motherjones.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/20211101-tucker-carlson2000px.gif?w=990\")
\n\n\n
Tucker Carlson at Politicon in Los Angeles on October 20, 2018 Christian Monterrosa/AP
\n… TC turns my stomach… i remember him on CNN’s Crossfire back in the day… he was an obnoxious twit back then… he’s morphed into something monstrous-to-me now… doesn’t he look monstrous in the photograph?… the point of the choice of image…
\n… i am toying with getting active in supporting democrats in next year’s election run up… i don’t have much money to give, but i have some time, which i’d really rather not expend that way, but i believe we are reaching a tipping point and need to be on deck in defense of Democracy…
\n… i was surveying the organization of my journal in Ulysses yesterday… i have this wonderful warm feeling of it being almost there as a cohesive product that could solidly support… something… but what something?… well organized thoughts and notes are the foundation of something bigger, if you want them to be… what is the bigger thing i am moving towards?… the coupling of journaling, thinking, and posting on a blog… something that develops the broad story of a particular human being at a particular stretch of moments in time grappling with the cosmos as it impinges on them… as i write this i am aware that when one has a project like this, puts large amounts of time and energy into it, one starts to desire an audience… one is supposed to desire an audience… the question sits in the shadows, what is my target audience?… my answer has been… i don’t care about my target audience… i want to craft something that is profoundly satisfying to me… this is what i seem to be on the path of now… it feels good… it needs tightening up and refining… it seems to be firing on nearly all cylinders, to use a gas engine phrase that is becoming quaint… can i push it to peak performance soon?…
\n", "date_published": "2021-11-02T02:19:47-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/11/02/first-thoughts.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","democracy","tucker carlson","fascism","david corn","fox news","marco rubio"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/11/01/hcr-meter.html", "title": "HCR Meter", "content_html": "… from, Letters from an American, Heather Cox Richardson…
\n\n\nToday the Washington Post published a long report about the events before, during, and after January 6, compiled by a team of more than 25 reporters and additional staff who reviewed video and court transcripts, followed social media posts, and interviewed more than 230 people. The report lays the blame for January 6 on Trump and warns that we are in a fight for the survival of democracy.1
\n
… and…
\n\n\nThe Washington Post suggests that they made that calculation in the immediate aftermath of January 6 because Trump continued to command his base and they worried about being primaried from the right if they didn’t support Trump’s Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen. And so they acquitted him in his second impeachment trial and supported the “audits” of state election results that had already been proved secure.
\n
\n\nBut that leaves a circle to be squared.
\n
\n\nWinning a primary by staking out turf as a Trump supporter would mean losing in the general election… unless state legislatures fixed elections so that Republicans would win, no matter who the Republican candidate happened to be.2
\n
… the next three years are “all hands on deck”…
\n… sign up for her newsletter here…
\nRichardson, Heather Cox, Letters from an American, October 31, 2021: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/october-31-2021 ↩︎
\nIbid ↩︎
\n… HCR meter, hopeful… making the case that the Biden administration is fundamentally changing the way government works, rebuilding hard infrastructure, establishing soft infrastructure funding that will be consequential… interestingly, she points to the way the news media (liberal included) is making the story all about the “dysfunctional” Dems by reporting breathlessly on the intransigence of Sinema and Manchin, while ignoring the dysfunction of the Republican Party, which refuses to be engaged in the process in any way… Republicans, she points out, are spending the majority of their time waging culture wars that they believe will make their base passionate enough to return them to power one last time… and it will be one last time… i believe that if the current iteration of Republicans is allowed back in, they won’t leave… likewise, it will be a Democratic era if the Dems are able to hold on, which they will do in a more legitimate way, by making sure all people can vote… this depends largely on the passage of voting rights legislation, which relies on Sinema and Manchin agreeing to, at minimum, a carveout in the filibuster that would permit a simple majority to pass whatever bill it is that moves forward… so, yay for infrastructure and to returning the government to being “of the people, by the people and for the people”… it is important to do things for the people… but the peril is clear, the solution is clear, the outcome is not…
\n… nice dinner party last night with K and D, except H dominated the conversation, focusing on herself and making it hard for the rest of us to participate… i get it though, i think she is desperate for direct human contact… beyond that, it was nice to spend some time with K and D… and!… they bought two of my photographs!… it’s been a good year on the photo sales front… to the point where i will report the activity as income on this year’s taxes… it also reminds me that i need to get back to getting work in front of the public… loosely, i am planning to do that in the new year… starting with an application for a NYSFA grant… very competitive, probably won’t get it, but it is free to apply and as they say, “you gotta be in it to win it”…
\n… Fiona escaped the yard yesterday… H was in the back garden, planting bulbs… one minute she was there, the next minute Chas was trying to tell her she had escaped… i had thought i had the various under-the-fence routes plugged, but apparently not… this morning i went out with the dogs and i think i found the hole… will plug it up today… it isn’t a very large hole but she doesn’t need much… it seems anything she can get her nose through she can go through…
\n", "date_published": "2021-10-30T03:18:57-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/10/30/first-thoughts.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","voting rights","fiona"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/10/29/first-thoughts.html", "title": "First Thoughts", "content_html": "… HCR meter, encouragement to progressives… all about the stock market crash, subsequent Republican attempts to pound the people even further into poverty, the election of FDR and the New Deal, which sparked recovery and American prosperity for multiple decades following, enabling the nation to prevail in the Second WW… the thought that immediately flows through my mind, why are conservatives so bent on pounding the people back to the place of the Great Depression?… why are they so keen on dismantling the social safety net system?… is it all about greed?… about wanting as much money and as many toys as possible?… it doesn’t really make sense to me… but then, i come from a place where i don’t want much more than supports a relatively humble existence… well, we are a little better off than humble existence, but we are solidly middle class and i like it that way… i am not a fan of unfettered capitalism, which is brutal… and, in any case, wealth distorts even that playing field… it is difficult to impossible to hold wealthy people accountable… what passes for justice in this country is what keeps the masses in line… this will get worse if conservatives have their way…
\n… economics as if people mattered… Buddhist economics… there has to be a better way…
\n… made a nice vegetarian dinner and even used the Instant Pot… i don’t like the IP that much… it’s a time saving device mostly designed to help one be a last minute cook… still, it did make a lovely dish in perhaps a little less time than cooking with normal pots and pans… chickpeas and tomatoes with Indian type spicing… cumin, turmeric, Cinamon… i served it with basmati rice and a salad of radicchio, fennel and radish…
\n… no alcohol last night… the usual feeling much better this morning…
\n… we are steadily making our way through The Haunting of Hill House… we are more than half way through and just now getting to the place where scary stuff happens… so far, i am not very scared… i don’t think we will finish by Halloween, maybe a day or two after…
\n… i must not forget the chickens today… i have been a little off center since forgetting them last Saturday…
\n… i have begun the switch to Proton Mail… i have worked out a way to keep Proton Mail free of spam, i hope… my proton email address will only be shared with friends and family… gmail will be used to sign up for things… email from sources i actually want to see will be forwarded to the Proton mail account via my admin@studiombk.com address… the result so far is a very clean email experience in Proton… i am curious if the Proton email address will be harvested from someone using gmail to communicate with me?… it occurs to me, that everyone should continue to have my gmail address, i will just set up filters to forward their email to Proton… now i have to work out profiles to reply with…
\n", "date_published": "2021-10-29T01:51:51-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/10/29/first-thoughts.html", "tags": ["food","heather cox richardson","proton mail","shirley jackson","the haunting of hill house"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/10/28/first-thoughts.html", "title": "First Thoughts", "content_html": "… morning off to a bad start… Chas whines until i get up… it’s almost time anyway… both dogs ready to go… running around the ground floor while i weigh myself and get dressed… weight on a steady upward trend… don’t feel like i have been eating too much, but the trend is the trend… then while doing the morning set up, the dogs prancing all over the place until the side table by the couch is knocked over… not hard to do, it is too tall for the three legged slenderness of its legs, making it wobble at the slightest touch… the crash startles and enrages me, WTF! i scream several times while turning on lights to see what damage has been done and return everything to it’s wobbly higher potential energy place1… H gets up to ask what’s going on… i explain and apologize for waking her up… i think she was up already anyway… Fiona slinks off to the second floor and back to bed with H… Chas braves my ill mood on the ground floor, then accompanies me upstairs… i let him in to the bedroom and then happily am by myself again, the house at peace…
\n… HCR meter, Alarm! Alarm!, democracy is under assault… yes it is, and whether congress is going to do anything about it is a serious question… so far, it doesn’t look like it… all kinds of sinister shit going on… contemplating the need to get involved locally… it’s all hands on deck for the 2022 midterm elections… congress must stay in the hands of Dems…
\n… drank too much last night… feeling the effects this AM… combination of needing to relax in a very worryingly unsavory national climate and just liking the effects of a drink or two at night… during dinner H wonders if we should line up to get our free joint on Friday… a store is giving them out two Fridays a month… i am sure they will be selling when the state works out the appropriate licensing regulations… i thinking that might be a better way to relax… less unpleasant effects the next day?… or would i overdo that too?… i wonder if there is a legal limit to pot and driving?…
\nI initially write “return everything to its higher entropy place,” then suspect that I have not understood entropy correctly… high entropy equals low level of order, though it is questionable that the concept applies at all to the situation… I look up entropy and find a wikipedia entry that explains in great detail what entropy is, without being very clear at all, but that is because entropy is a hard to grasp concept… ↩︎
\n… HCR meter, broken record, except, it’s a really important broken record… conservative forces that are in the minority are trying to seize control of the government… right now, they are on a track to succeed, unless, something is done about voting rights… will Manchin and Sinema come around to altering the filibuster?… no signs yet that they will…
\n… spent a bunch of time making my computer work better (more rapidly) and fussing with other issues, like my proton mail account which i am trying to make my email for correspondence with people i know… part of my withdrawal from Google… i have made decent progress on that front… oh, and i also installed Monterey, which appears to be not much of a change, except, shortcuts… i will be exploring the usefulness of shortcuts…
\n… COVID booster shot today… yay!
\n… the rain gave way to wind last night… no more rain for today, but more tomorrow and into the weekend…
\n… H woke up when i went to the bathroom and worried that the tree of life would be blown down… i told her there wasn’t enough wind to do that… she said the ground was saturated… i didn’t reply but maintained my position in my thoughts… if it ever did come down it could be a problem… it’s huge and would easily reach our or our neighbor’s house if it fell in either direction…
\n… i am trying to forward email from my mkriegh@studiombk.com email account to Proton, but so far, it hasn’t worked… it keeps going through gmail… and then i figured it out… i had two studiombk email addresses and had only configured the admin one to forward to Proton… i log into the mkriegh one and discover that lots of stuff goes through it from apple and adobe… so much for not having that email spammed… still, it is better than gmail which is spammed beyond belief…
\n… the wind blowing outside… a rushing sound…
\n", "date_published": "2021-10-27T02:26:26-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/10/27/first-thoughts.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/10/26/first-thoughts.html", "title": "First Thoughts", "content_html": "… heavy rain last night… woke up intermittently to the sounds of splashing water… gutters that are clogged and overflowing?… don’t think it’s our gutters… the houses next door?…
\n… HCR meter, interesting and disturbing… more and more information coming out about January 06, the administration of 45 and Facebook… a lot of evil afoot… it’s more and more likely that the insurrection was planned… Republican House members are implicated… 45 is implicated… there seems to be a “festering turd” pile of rich conservatives trying to cement power towards an autocracy… HCR points to 1903 as the last time the wealthy made such a significant play for control at the expense of democracy… it was turned back then… there is no guarantee it will be now… even so, with so much coming out, there is plenty for the people to act on and a number of actors intent on doing that… hoping the people prevail again…
\n… made Moela (or Moelas, as a Portuguese contact spelled it) last night… chicken gizzards… it’s a good way to make them… H is not a fan of gizzards in general but said she liked this dish, as she has in the past… it wasn’t quite spicy enough… omitted crushed red pepper in favor of two fresh poblano peppers instead of the one called for… the long cooking tempered the heat of the poblanos to the point of non existence… should have kept the crushed red pepper… next time… my Portuguese contact has promised to compare my recipe to his mother’s and let me know of differences…
\n… there will be no photo walk today… rain all day… not really interested in a photo drive as i used to do on such days… will just skip the day in photograph making and focus on processing and other photography practice objectives…
\n… i over-drank last night… not badly, but enough to feel effects… sigh… it’s a struggle…
\n… i remember that D and K are coming for dinner on Friday… i remember that there is money owed me… will this be the day i communicate with people such that it will come to me?… i have been oddly resistant to doing that… in one case, i am not ready to start the work again… or at least hesitant about doing so… in the other i am unclear of the price i should ask… anyway… lets make a pact with ourselves and get it done today, shall we?…
\n… i couldn’t resist… started the download of OS Monterey… several hours of wait and watch i expect…
\n", "date_published": "2021-10-26T08:11:08-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/10/26/first-thoughts.html", "tags": ["politics","food","heather cox richardson"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/10/23/first-thoughts.html", "title": "First Thoughts", "content_html": "… H’s bday a success, including gift i was worried about but had gambled on because i thought she would love it… and she did…
\n… my wireless keyboard is suddenly having sticky keys… a while back i spilled coffee on it and keys got sticky so i couldn’t use it… then i tried it and it was a lot better… now sticky again… the cold weather?…
\n… we drove to a really nice farm stand yesterday… would love to see it in full season… came back with a bunch of goodies… including really fresh ginger, garlic, some pasta, some mutton merguez sausage…
\n… HCR meter pointing up… largely about the epic battle Liz Cheney is waging on the crazies that have taken over the Republican party… apparently she is doing quite well with fundraising and the January 6th committee, which she co-chairs, is increasingly implicating 45 as having been intimately involved in the insurrection… of course, there are a bunch of people who haven’t lost their souls to the batshit crazy and always thought he was responsible…
\n… started reading the Haunting of Hill House to H last night… the goal is to try to finish by Halloween… not sure we will make it… more than 20 pages a night… if i forgo the alcohol, we might…
\n… i check the weather, need to harvest whatever herbs i will harvest today… rain and cold coming…
\n", "date_published": "2021-10-23T03:03:39-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/10/23/first-thoughts.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/10/16/hcr-meter.html", "title": "HCR Meter", "content_html": "… a pivotal moment?… the Freedom to Vote Act will be voted on by the Senate… this is the measure Manchin says he can get ten republican senators to vote for, thus passing the legislation without tanking the filibuster… there is no sign those ten votes will materialize…
\n… HCR tells us the fate of democracy hangs in the balance… either some form of voting rights legislation passes, or there will be, effectively, a one party system “that, at best, will look much like the American South did between 1876 and 1964”1…
\n… that we are here at all is amazing to me… if we don’t get voting rights legislation, if we become a minority ruled oligarchy or authoritarian country, i will have no desire to live here but may not have much choice… i also think our retired life might be threatened as there were rumblings of doing away with Social Security entirely at the end of 45’s administration…
\n… we’d be in a pickle, though, hopefully, by then, our mortgage will be paid off…
\nRichardson, Heather Cox: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/october-15-2021 ↩︎
\n… hopeful signs?…
\n… the appearance, at least, that nooses are tightening… Bannon being held in contempt of congress… 45 wanting to challenge January 6 select committee authority but struggling to lawyer up… bad reputation on several fronts appears to be dogging him… courts siding with opponents of 45 and 45 administration…
\n… this morning’s post allows me to hope that the whole gang can be brought down before the 2022 election cycle which might minimize ability of Republicans to make gains…
\n… oddly, conservatives battering Biden/Harris with supply chain paranoia, claiming Christmas will see package delays of epic proportions… i remember last year… packages did not arrive on time… arrived weeks late…
\n", "date_published": "2021-10-15T02:27:16-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/10/15/hcr-meter.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","history"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/10/14/hcr-meter.html", "title": "HCR Meter", "content_html": "… things aren’t all bad…
\n… some things the Biden/Harris admin has accomplished that have flown under the radar:
\n… about two op-eds by Republicans or former Republicans… all sensible Republicans should vote Democrat until the existential crisis is over… Bill Maher aired a monologue1 in which he says bluntly, 45 will run and will be nominated by the Republican Party in 2024 which will lead to a constitutional crisis of epic proportions… it’s worth finding and watching… we, apparently, faced a similar threat leading up to the civil war… something happening here, what it is is pretty clear… to paraphrase a CSNY song…
\nStarts at about minute 47 ↩︎
\n… not smoke, fire…
\n… about the debt ceiling fight, 45’s control of the Republican Party, the efforts of a hyper-radicalized minority to seize control of the country…
\n… we are heading towards a full bore constitutional crisis that will play out in the next two election cycles… 2022 will give us a good idea of where the country stands…
\n… Democrats have the power to reign it in, if they become willing to alter, limit or abolish the filibuster… so far they have not been willing to do that, but the debt ceiling will present itself as a continued battle in December that may require it… will Senators Sinema and Manchin get on board?… or will they go down in history as the two senators that could have stopped authoritarian rule but didn’t?…
\n… the country has been to this kind of precipice before… the last time a civil war broke out…
\n… it seems we come to the precipice periodically and manage to preserve democracy, albeit at great cost… will it be preserved now?… hard to know…
\n", "date_published": "2021-10-11T02:31:53-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/10/11/hcr-meter.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","45","democracy","sinema","manchin","debt ceiling"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/10/09/hcr-meter.html", "title": "HCR Meter", "content_html": "\n\nI’m a professor of American history. This is a chronicle of today’s political landscape, but because you can’t get a grip on today’s politics without an outline of America’s Constitution, and laws, and the economy, and social customs, this newsletter explores what it means, and what it has meant, to be an American.1
\n
… a friend wrote on FB that his day gets off to a good or bad start depending on what Heather Cox Richardson has to say… the above is from her about page… you can subscribe to her six, sometimes seven days a week posts here… she says, in her one paragraph personal statement, that she believes in Democracy “despite its frequent failures”2… at the present time, this makes her liberal… in fact, i would argue that believing in democracy is becoming a radical act… would be authoritarian rulers are gaming the democratic system at home in an effort to overturn it, all the while claiming they are protecting the “American way of life”… authoritarian regimes around the planet are betting that it isn’t facile enough to keep up with the rapid pace of technological and social change…
\n… following my FB friend’s lead, reading HCR has become a daily habit… i started including daily HCR meter statements with some commentary a while back… i have decide to separate them out into their own daily post…
\n… this morning HCR discusses the noose that is trying to close around 45 and high level figures in his administration… is accountability coming?… i don’t know… i would like to think so, but the inability of congress to impeach 45 and the failure of the Muller report to lead to any repercussions for 45 and his cronies has made me skeptical that our systems of accountability is up to the challenge of wealthy and well connected individuals… at this point i see the main purpose of our justice system as keeping the “little people” in line while the rich and powerful do whatever they want… this is not a particularly new observation, it’s just that it has only recently become apparent to me… my blindness results from my white middle class maleness… i want to be proven wrong… i hope i am proven wrong…
\nRichardson, Heather Cox, about: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/about?utm_source=menu-dropdown&sort=about ↩︎
\nRichardson, Heather Cox, about: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/about?utm_source=menu-dropdown&sort=people ↩︎
\nFirst Thoughts
\n\n\n… in the end we all fail… we fail because we all die and staying alive has been the point all along…
\n
… last night i found myself wishing i had the energy to write an end of day journal entry… it seems days should begin and end with some thoughts about how things are, how things went and how i hope they might go tomorrow… or perhaps some commentary on the political shit show… or perhaps i will have read or accomplished something significant…
\n… which i did in the sense that whenever you keep life in order something significant has happened…
\n… yesterday i got up, wrote in my journal, read and wrote in my journal some more, went for my photowalk, made breakfast, sorted out some bill paying issues, edited some photographs, did the laundry, did some more photo editing, made a lovely and very tasty dinner… then we watched a couple of episodes of Maid, a Netflix series we like… except, i get really frustrated with the young woman protagonist who’s life continuously falls apart as soon as it’s put together… she makes bad choices (as much as i know free will is a questionable proposition, it seems i continue to believe there are choices to be consciously made)… almost everyone in her life is a disaster and their disasters constantly overtake her too… last night i had to turn it off i got so angry with her… when i like a program series i get emotionally invested in the characters… i especially get invested in characters struggling against the odds, the underdog characters — i know, me and the rest of humanity — who triumph in spite of all the beatings they take from the cosmos because, never-the-less, they persist and something does come of it…
\n… i suppose human mythology contains plenty of warnings that in life we don’t prevail… Job or Sisyphus, or just plain every man or woman as represented by Willie Loman in death of a salesman and Blanche DuBois in streetcar named desire…
\n… this hero’s journey thing is pretty engrained in our psyches… i expect it has a survival of the species purpose… we all need to see ourselves as heroes prevailing against the cosmic headwinds of life… except, so many of us get to the end and we are disappointed with the results of our efforts… we ask ourselves what it all meant and the answer to that question is not satisfying… i wonder if it is any more satisfying for an individual who can say their lives truly made a difference to humanity, Einstein, Jonas Salk, Newton, Simone De Beauvoir… maybe not… in the end we all fail… we fail because we all die and staying alive has been the point all along…
\n… when i review my life i realize i have generally had it good… i have never been destitute… i didn’t and don’t live in a war torn or third world country (yet)… i have made choices that didn’t go well, but always struggled with the results and turned them out as well as i could which was generally in a positive direction…
\n… at this place in my life my only big complaint is that it should have meant more in the grand scheme of things… my minor complaint is that i was saddled with a very inadequate human being for a father… the repercussions of that were extensive though M and siblings put the better face on it… M observed to me recently that we were “such polar opposites”… we were… how’s that for bad Karma?… to be saddled with a child who’s every choice in life seems to be a repudiation of the way you lived yours?… i suppose it’s something of an accomplishment to get to a place where i accepted there would never be a decent relationship between us, and there never was…
\n… the HCR meter today was in positive territory i suppose… the debt ceiling got raised, the stock market rebounded, there continue to be revelations about January 06, 2021 and 45’s administration… i would like to believe there will be accountability in the end, but 45’s impeachment trials put an end to my belief in our republic’s ability to enforce consequences on the rich and/or powerful… the system is rigged in their favor and exists principally to keep the common folk in order…
\n", "date_published": "2021-10-08T03:13:30-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/10/08/first-thoughts-in.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/10/07/first-thoughts-we.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n\n\nwe should make what we make and let the cosmos decide what will come of it…
\n
… i have began to reorganize my photography web presence… i pointed studiombk.com away from my current Wordpress site and back to my old Adobe Portfolio site… the reason i had moved to a Wordpress site was to be able to keep a live journal (called “Daybook”) in an easier way… then i started using Ulysses as a writing tool, which led me to micro.blog which quickly became my journaling outlet, now called Notes On Attention Paid… once that was done, i went to set up Plausible Analytics with it and discovered a rub… i couldn’t track activity on the Adobe Portfolio site without using Google Analytics, which has become part of the evil big tech empire in my opinion… moreover, the use of Google Analytics required a banner saying so with a button that forced a visitor to opt in to being tracked… i found a lot of people wouldn’t do that and the bounce rate on the site was higher because of it… i will fly with no tracking… it caused me irritation when there wasn’t much traffic (there never has been to any of the various sites i have maintained over the years)… it also had a tendency to influence content, if they liked that i will do more of that… this is not what art production should be grounded in… we should make what we make and let the cosmos decide what will come of it…
\n… HCR meter, a step back from the precipice, for the time being anyway… Mitch McConnel will allow the Dems to raise the debt ceiling until December… which will clear the way for them to pass the infrastructure bills they have been hammering out… good news, i suppose, though i had been hoping the situation would get so dire they would do away with the filibuster… the time is long gone when a minority party should be able to stop legislation that is popular but which some don’t like… i am willing to fly with no filibuster for anything… if we use the freedom to pass some voting rights legislation, democracy will be in control for a long time…
\n… yesterday felt a little more disjointed in the things accomplished… still, a steady list of things to be done is being worked through and i feel good about it… i only wish that H did more to help… they spend much of the day communicating with friends and acquaintances on FB and Instagram, with the news playing in the background… i move on with the variety of things i want to see done… maybe someday they will realize they need to help…
\n… been feeling a vague malaise… not lacking in energy, just not feeling physically happy… not sure what its about… possibly connected to alcohol consumption… the only day in the past month i have felt great was the day after a day i had no alcohol… i caved last night and bought a bottle of blended scotch and had a couple before dinner… kombucha with dinner… i didn’t overdo it, but still feel physically unhappy today…
\n", "date_published": "2021-10-07T02:31:51-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/10/07/first-thoughts-we.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/10/06/first-thoughts-woke.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… woke at 5 AM… that is sleeping late for me… busy day yesterday… lots got done… another busy day today…
\n… made beach rose hip jam yesterday… actually more of a marmalade…
\n\n ![\"\"](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/38689/2021/9e8324dbe9.jpg\")
\n\n\n
… my first successful BR jam… tried last year but managed to burn the sugar…
\n… HCR meter, country approaching the precipice… Mitch McConnel has lost control of his caucus?… are there those who would really see the country crash and burn because they could rebuild it as an oligarchy or with authoritarian control?… i believe the conditions are being set for Manchin and Synema to blow away the filibuster… if this happens, a floodgate of legislation that should drown radical Republicans and wash them out to the sea… one can only hope… in the meantime, our retirement life hangs in the balance…
\n… i had the thought this morning, its actually been hanging out in the recesses of my consciousness for a while, that 45 will return as a Hitleresque leader and Tucker Carlson will be his henchman, the one who sets up the concentration camps… this might seem outlandish, but i see a host of characters on the far right that would readily fill the roles of Nazi German government… Steve Bannon would be head of the SS… it doesn’t take me to any kind of happy place to be having these thoughts…
\n… sirens in the distance… many sirens… police, fire trucks, i am wondering what is going on… if it’s big, i will find out later…
\n", "date_published": "2021-10-06T03:36:41-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/10/06/first-thoughts-woke.html", "tags": ["politics","food","heather cox richardson","cooking"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/10/05/first-thoughts-got.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… got a lot done yesterday… spent a lot of money on provisioning humans and animals, however, humans are good for a week or more with minor expenditures along the way, and animals are good for up to three weeks… since we are leasing a car and have limited yearly mileage, we are trying to use the car less… this is both environmentally sound and financially sound… for the next week, whatever we need will be gotten in town at stores within walking distance…
\n… weight down significantly from the high it reached on BI… an error of the scale?… down three pounds in two days… makes one wonder… could be water weight…
\n… managed not to have more than one cocktail last two nights… trying not to have any alcohol, but if it’s in the house i am as likely as not to drink it… at least i am not drinking it all at once…
\n… HCR meter on tense… Republicans trying to thwart the Dems and playing Russian Roulette with the debt ceiling… according to HCR they are trying to force the Dems to use up their reconciliation chip on the debt ceiling instead of the infrastructure package… the other answer would be to change the filibuster… strange that a rule allowing a party to require a sixty vote threshold to pass legislation itself can be undone or modified by a simple majority as it has been when there is an impasse on legislation of extreme importance to party or country… i am really hoping McConnel’s gambit will finally bring Manchin and Sinemah on board with filibuster busting and that the dems are able to bring on an avalanche of legislation, including the voting rights legislation… that should thoroughly fix the wagons of Republicans and condemn them to being minority party for a number of decades… one of the interesting points HCR made is to compare the industrial revolution that took place at the end of the 1800’s, and the effect it had in concentrating wealth and threatening to undo democracy, to the present moment in time… technology is again concentrating wealth and threatening democracy… in the late 1800’s the Robber Barons were beat back… will the new class of Robbers be beat back as well?…
\n… the crickets and other noisy bugs continue their nightly chorus… won’t be long before cold weather puts and end to that… fall is underway… winter is coming…
\n", "date_published": "2021-10-05T02:35:14-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/10/05/first-thoughts-got.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/10/02/first-thoughts-bad.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… bad night… didn’t sleep well, kept waking up, couldn’t get comfortable, don’t feel great this morning… most likely alcohol is the culprit…
\n… lots to do today to get ready to go home… pack up… cemetery board meeting… finish puzzle… finish rose hip jam… go to farmer’s market… go to dump… too much to do, or so it feels…
\n… HCR meter on “give me a break,”… pointing to the breathless news stories about the “unraveling” of the Biden presidency… she recounts the major news stories of a year ago by comparison… there was a presidency unraveling… by contrast, what we have today is intense negotiations on infrastructure that were not completed by a self imposed deadline… a soft deadline… Biden promised yesterday that it would get done, whether it takes six hours, six days or six weeks… something will get done… i believe that…
\n… i really can’t drink alcohol anymore… it never leaves me feeling good the morning after… the best day i had out here was the day after a night i didn’t drink and i brewed sumac tea and consumed it… i felt spectacular…
\n… i am remembering a dream centered around a barbecue where too much meat was being cooked… i couldn’t figure out where it was all going to be stored when people didn’t eat it… H seemed to be taking care of that without any worries… she instructed me to go get one of the grills which was located on the property line between two houses… one was a friend, the other a hostile to trespassing neighbor… the neighbor screamed at me and called the police… i took the grill and left the scene…
\n… made dinner for M&P last night… ribeye steak, roasted paprika potatoes, arugula/cucumber/red pepper salad… the potatoes stuck to the pan and weren’t beautiful in presentation, otherwise the dinner was a success…
\n… while H did the dishes M&P and i talked about a dizzying array of topics… immigration, gay sexuality, lgbtq and the arts… topics that had the potential to be contentious but all managed well by all of us… a good evening…
\n", "date_published": "2021-10-02T03:42:08-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/10/02/first-thoughts-bad.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/10/01/first-thoughts-hcr.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… HCR meter jumping all around… major legislation being debated, the infrastructure bill, the reconciliation bill, waiting in the wings, voting rights legislation… lots to do… can the Dems get it done?… the only thing accomplished yesterday was funding of the government… no shutdown… still the debt ceiling to act on… fasten seat belts, bumpy ride is in progress…
\n… linguini with clams last night, one of H’s favorites… Edward Scissorhands soundtrack playing in the background… extensive discussion about M&P’s situation over dinner… acknowledgement that the road will be rough next few years… how to support them… don’t believe P’s children will be of much help… M&P want to be on BI… L wishes they would winter on mainland… will need help with household chores, laundry, cleaning, shopping, etc… the present goal is to have M&P recognize the help they need and line it up… some signs that is happening…
\nH seems to be taking it on as a professional nursing assignment, not just a child caring for aging parents assignment… i try to tell them not to do that, that they need to be the child caring for aging parents first and foremost… they are not in agreement…
\n… i think about my M and wonder if they will find a significant other… hoping they have the wisdom not to let another constrain their lives and that it is managed as companionship with separate residences…
\n… first day of October… fall beginning in ernest… a chill in the air to go with it…
\n… i hear a dog stirring upstairs… hoping they settle down and sleep a bit more, don’t want to have to get up just now…
\n… in the middle of the night, a dry and sore throat… hoping i am not catching something…
\n… thinking about where to walk today… how far to walk… maybe out to the north light, last chance to see the seals without that couple hogging the experience…
\n", "date_published": "2021-10-01T02:54:39-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/10/01/first-thoughts-hcr.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","block island"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/09/30/first-thoughts-hcr.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… HCR meter… do or die… the moment has arrived when voting rights legislation must be passed or the current gerrymandered redistricting will be locked in and the Dems are likely to loose control of house and Senate in 2022 and likely as well to loose control of the Presidency in 2024… according to most liberal pundits, this would be a disaster for democracy… all eyes on Washington and the Dems this week… in particular, Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema…
\n… my weight has been steadily climbing… two factors… not enough exercise, too many carbs… must reverse the trend…
\n… my left foot seems to have rounded a corner… standing on it while working in the kitchen did not cause pain yesterday… i can still feel some residual discomfort, but i think it is nearly healed… i will try a longer beach walk this AM… M and i continue to have micro text exchanges… they seem to be settling in to life on their own nicely…
\n… much hand ringing over H’s M… trying to figure out how to be sure she gets to the doctor for x-ray and consultation… H will not be easy to live with if this is not well set up on our departure… the current plan is to get them off the island to P’s house on Sunday… L will then pick them up and get them to the doctor on Wednesday… how they get back to BI will be up to them… we haven’t told M yet that we were unable to postpone our car reservation on the ferry so it will be Sunday… hopefully that won’t be a problem…
\n… looked up the recipe for rose hip jam… had forgotten how involved it is… well, gonna do it anyway… will gather the supplies today…
\n… looking forward to getting home… lots of house and yard maintenance work awaits and it is a bit of a drag living in a house that needs so much attention, but it is home and i look forward to being home which i have barely been for the past month…
\n… checked the weather and tide level… today will be the day to walk the length of the beach at Mohegan bluffs… haven’t done that yet… looking forward to it…
\n… feeling good today, in spite of two beers and a couple glasses of wine… made swordfish last night, my best iteration of the pan roasted swordfish recipe that is always so successful…
\nFish, Seafood
\nPrep Time: 1 hour (mostly waiting)
\nCook Time: 25 minutes | Servings: Yield 4 servings
\nIngredients:
\n1/8 cup butter, room temperature
\n1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
\n1/2 garlic clove, grated
\n1/4 teaspoon ground mixed peppercorns, plus more for sprinkling
\n1/4 teaspoon (packed) grated lemon peel
\n1/2 tablespoon olive oil
\n2 1-inch-thick swordfish steaks (about 6 ounces each)
\nDirections:
\nAn hour before cooking:
\nSalt swordfish steaks on both sides. Cover and refridgerate.
\nSoften/melt butter in microwave. Add parsley, garlic, 1/2 teaspoon ground mixed peppercorns, and lemon peel in small bowl. Stir together and let sit. Butter should begin to re-solidify.
\n15 minutes prior to cooking:
\nPreheat oven to 400°F.
\nPull swordfish steaks out of refridgerator to allow to warm up.
\nTo cook:
\nHeat oil in heavy large ovenproof skillet over medium heat. Sprinkle swordfish with ground mixed peppercorns. Add swordfish to skillet. Cook until browned, about 3 minutes. Turn swordfish over and transfer to oven. Roast until just cooked through, about 10 minutes longer. Transfer swordfish to plates. Add seasoned butter to same skillet. Cook over medium-high heat, scraping up browned bits, until melted and bubbling. Pour butter sauce over swordfish and serve. Source
\n", "date_published": "2021-09-30T02:32:51-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/09/30/first-thoughts-hcr.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","voting rights","democracy","joe manchin","cooking"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/09/29/first-thoughts-hcr.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… HCR meeter, democracy hanging in the balance… Mitch McConnel grandstanding, accusing the Dems of socialist betrayal of the country… i really don’t care about the socialist argument… i simply don’t want to finish out my life under the system Republicans propose…
\n… yesterday a somewhat lazy day… thunderstorms in the afternoon, dinner of leftovers… moved the puzzle forward… i think i will have time to finish it before going home…
\n… M went out with friends for dinner and said it was “good times”… they seem to be settling into their life without D… that we communicate daily and i send them photographs daily is a change in the absence of D… i keep checking my feelings about D and they are guiltless feelings of gladness that they are not around to muck up the works anymore… everything feels calmer and more genuine… less fear… more willingness to communicate freely… interestingly, i think about them… it’s hard to describe their presence in my mind… just sort of there, not haunting, not hating, just there… a presence that allows memories of the good and bad without much emotion… i don’t miss them, i do not forget them…
\n… H has been obsessed with her mother’s health and well being… generally, they have not been the best companion on this vacation, so focused on their own woes… they hammered away at it when B and M were over… i try to get them to back off a bit, let go, keep in mind that M is 90 years old, has lived a good life, is still a competent adult… they don’t see it that way… they treat M like a child… not much i can do but tolerate it… i am grateful for the hours of my own space in the morning… i look forward to H finding their way to a happier space… i hope it happens soon… i hope it happens… i am a little weary of having to be the float that keeps us from drowning in the negativity that surrounds us… i try to tell them this… they are determined to be as they are… not particularly happy, not contributing much to joint happiness…
\n… i have an MP cemetery annual meeting on Saturday… i am annoyed by this too… why does it always happen in the midst of vacation?… i am getting tired of that…
\n… well, on to Modern Nature…
\n", "date_published": "2021-09-29T03:33:14-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/09/29/first-thoughts-hcr.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","family"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/09/25/first-thoughts-hcr.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… HCR meter would be depressing if i didn’t already know its truths, which is that a vocal minority bent on an authoritarian government is trying to take over the country… that a significant enough number of my fellow citizens don’t give a damn about what the majority of the country wants… it all hinges on Democrats being willing to kill the filibuster… all eyes on the Senate…
\n… the mostly white patriarchy is holding on for dear life against the rising multicultural tide… we have the numbers if we have the will to fight…
\n… dinner at M’s last night, PG, PW, K and E there for cocktails, M and PG for dinner…
\n… i drank more wine than i wanted to, walked a perilous line on politics and religion, came home and barely remember going to bed… i think we watched some news and then H woke me up to go to bed… don’t feel bad this morning, but morning is young…
\n… been steadily working on the puzzle the L’s left behind… slow going, maybe 10 to 20 pieces a day… going a little faster now as the pieces are fewer in number… i wonder about puzzles, what makes them fun, i suppose it is the challenge and the slow appearance of a picture… this one is of the Eiffel Tower… it’s not a particularly nice image of it… i’ve seen much more compelling puzzle images…
\n… i glance up and my eyes fall on a Tibetan singing bowl on the mantle… i remember B making it sing during the fish dinner… B is a spiritual person… S is more down to earth… i remember the sumac berries i harvested yesterday and begin to prepare warm water to soak them in… and now they are soaking… it is warm water as opposed to boiling to avoid leaching tannins out of the seeds which make it bitter… i think i will try to make some jam out of it too…
\n", "date_published": "2021-09-25T05:20:03-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/09/25/first-thoughts-hcr.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/09/23/first-thoughts-we.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… we are installed in the cottage… slightly frustrating day doing so… cleaning lady late, dogs pooping and peeing in the cottage… no desire to cook, only the news available… H able to pursue their news addiction, sound pollution for me…
\n… HCR meter all about how it is increasingly evident that there was a full blown coup attempt… that it only barely failed… that the attempt is not over… the white patriarchy is desperate… democracy hangs in the balance… is the clock running out for dems to do something about it?…
\n… the internet is so pathetic at the cottage, which has wifi, or supposedly has wifi, but it is utterly useless… even in the wee hours of the morning when nobody else would be using it there is no bandwidth… there might as well not be any wifi at all…
\n… thinking about Modern Nature… thinking about the promiscuity of cruising parks and hooking up… thinking about the anger towards heterosexuals who would think such behavior among themselves ill advised… sex was rarely just sex to me… i dated one girl at a time and that girl had a chance of becoming something more to me and i to her… there were a few one night stands that were not satisfying… the idea of cruising the park seems crazy to me… that was the gay culture that DJ participated in, embraced, even after being diagnosed with AIDS… he claimed that little penetrative sex was indulged in once the gay community understood how the disease was transmitted… just hand jobs… still, it all seems risky behavior… behavior that was only about sex, not love… i don’t insist on heterosexual love… i just prefer sex in the context of a loving relationship…
\n… insects chirping outside, grasshoppers?, katydids?, cicadas?, what do they have on the island?… i wonder whether the noises they make leads predators as well as lovers to them… if so, what a risk they take for love…
\n", "date_published": "2021-09-23T05:57:48-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/09/23/first-thoughts-we.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","sex","love"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/09/21/first-thoughts-hcr.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… HCR meter is pointing decidedly downward as more information about 45’s attempts to overthrow the government come out… both immediately after the election and ongoing efforts to change the results… democracy is hanging in the balance and will require decisive action by Democrats if it is to be preserved…
\n… my weight has plateaued for now and, when i am able to start cooking for us, i should be able to reverse the upward trend…
\n… S, S, J, and B went fishing yesterday and brought back a bunch of fish, and prepared it, all of which was yummy… the black bass ceviche was my favorite and i will try to make it myself while on the island…
\n… we’ve had a few idyllic days, perfect fall weather… yesterday was a perfect beach day, not looking as good for the coming week…
\n… i am thinking i may drive out to the north end again this AM, but earlier, in hopes of being the first out there for the day…
\n", "date_published": "2021-09-21T05:23:50-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/09/21/first-thoughts-hcr.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/09/17/first-thoughts-at.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… at last, the day we take off for BI has arrived… we are largely ready… have to pack my own clothes and a few kitchen items, take care of a few other items, but other than that, we are ready to go… the car is even partially packed… H has just gotten up…
\n… our car insurance check has not been processed by the bank… this is making me nervous… will need to bring it with us… in case we have to deal with that…
\n… HCR meter pointing downwards… about Michael Flynn gaining traction on the right… about one of the largest real estate companies in China on the verge of collapse… that will have some impact around the world… the Michael Flynn story is disquieting…
\n… i am so looking forward to being on vacation… my coping capacity has been stretched to the max… H started telling me about a little scratch and swelling around Chas’s eye… she started worrying at me looking to me to tell her what we will do… i told her i had no capacity for anything further going wrong, there was no way we could take him to a vet before leaving without missing M’s wedding that she was going to have to deal with it herself and not share her worries on it with me… and she did exactly that and everything is ok and i didn’t have to obsess about calling it one way or the other… though, in effect, i did call it… at any rate, i am looking forward to not having to worry about much, going for long walks, having nice meals, etc. etc. etc… time to decompress…
\n", "date_published": "2021-09-17T02:45:39-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/09/17/first-thoughts-at.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","vacation","michael flynn"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/09/15/first-thoughts-well.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… well, we did it, in just four days we tracked down a car we wanted to lease, completed the transaction, brought it home… it’s not our ideal car, plug in hybrid, hybrid, were both high on our list of desirable… still, we got heated seats, a bucket of safety features, a larger car than we had before, a moon roof, a pleasant, well crafted ride… and because we leased it, the chance to buy or lease the car of our dreams in three years…
\n… having settled the car question, we can drive out to Block Island, enjoy our niece’s wedding, and have a vacation in which we can finally have some down time and together time, which we have had little of for the past month and a half… between M’s accident and D passing away, we have been separated and tending to our respective family traumas… and then there was the drowning of our Honda Fit by tropical storm Ida… as i write “Ida” i am prompted to check my hurricane tracker app to see what is brewing in The Atlantic… a couple of storms, one doesn’t look likely to hit land, the other, coming off the coast of Africa is presently moving towards the Caribbean… should keep an eye on that one…
\n… a couple of things to do still to conclude the Fit chapter in our lives… we need to get our plates back so we can hand them in and stop the insurance on the Fit… we need to meet with a Geico representative to sign over the title and receive a check… it’s not looking like either will happen before we leave on vacation…
\n… for the next two days we will organize ourselves to get out to BI…
\n… HCR meter, neutral, Joe Manchin and a handful of Democrat senators have crafted a compromise voting rights bill that Manchin has promised he can get ten Republican votes for… according to HCR, democracy hangs in the balance… i ascribe to this position too… it looks like the preservation of democracy or the preservation of the filibuster, at great cost to democracy as a governing principle…
\n…
\n", "date_published": "2021-09-15T01:32:02-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/09/15/first-thoughts-well.html", "tags": ["heather cox richardson","honda"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/09/14/first-thoughts-just.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… just 84 hours after finding our car was drowned in flooding when tropical storm Ida passed through, we have organized a new car for ourselves, a Honda HR-V EX AWD…
\n\n \n\n\n
… we are hoping to have it in our possession by Thursday, if not before…
\n… it’s hard to say that we have good car karma, given the drowning incident, but both times we have procured a new car, we have been able to do so under circumstances favorable to us… we got our Honda Fit during cash for clunkers… we traded in a car we paid 3K for and got 7K for it… it was a big part of making the car affordable at the time… this time we have an insurance settlement which is nearly double what we expected as a trade-in… again, helping with the money down situation…
\n… finding the car has been a whirlwind… we visited three different Honda dealers and two different Toyota dealers before settling on the HR-V above… there is a shortage of cars because there is a global shortage of microchips essential to their manufacture… most cars are being purchased before they get to the manufacturer’s lot… that we found one that met most of our requirements and desires already on the lot that hadn’t been spoken for is a small miracle…
\n… HCR meter neutral…
\nRichardson, Heather Cox, Letters from an American, September 13, 2021: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/september-13-2021 ↩︎
\nFirst Thoughts
\n… we started looking at new cars yesterday… will probably head in the direction of a Honda HR-V… slightly larger and more SUV like than the Fit… we will probably lease since we have to move quickly and can’t get our ideal car, a hybrid… HR-V hybrids will become available in a year or two, so by the end of the lease we may be able to get an HR-V hybrid… also, one would hope that the worldwide chip shortage will be over and new cars more readily available…
\n… dropped off K and B’s photograph and had a chat yesterday… good to see them… we have to get together with them after we return from BI… we owe lots of friends dinner or some kind of entertainment…
\n… continuing my streak of less than optimal fortune, both my bank cards were compromised yesterday… had to get new cards… need to think carefully about how i use them and where i allow them to be stored… seems rather unlikely that both of them, one relatively new and not used that much, should be compromised simultaneously… i worry i have been hacked somewhere…
\n… sorted out H’s Apple Watch issue yesterday… she is good to go…
\n… today… family meeting, photowalk, farmer’s market, vacuum, unpack suitcase, text M…
\n… need to eat a bit healthier today… no pizza, turkey and cheese rolls… need vegetables!…
\n… HCR meter solomn… about 911 on the 20th anniversary of the attack… the danger the Republican Party poses to democracy…
\n", "date_published": "2021-09-12T02:55:28-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/09/12/first-thoughts-we.html", "tags": ["heather cox richardson"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/09/10/first-thoughts-going.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… going home day… resuming something like a normal life day… M all on their own day… that is where we are… i feel confident that M will be ok…
\n… it is amazing how much less tension there is in the air without D in the picture… a kind of black hole increasing in intensity the older they got… it is a little sad that there are no recent good memories…
\n… Joe Biden upping the anti on COVID vaccinations… mandating them wherever the government touches… OSHA with companies of 100 or more… Head Start programs receiving government funding… all federal employees… all contractors doing business with the government… fines doubled for airline passengers refusing to mask… there was one on the way down…
\n… slept poorly… the red wine?… didn’t drink anymore last night than the night before… white wine the night before… i don’t think i got more than three or four hours sleep… last contact with my favorite barista at Kunjani… an unusually pleasant and smiley young woman… more willing to have eye contact… more willing to engage… if i were living here we would get to be on a first name basis and i would have warm feelings towards her and fantasies about her… so it goes…
\n… if all goes smoothly i will be home by 6 tonight… i will sleep in my own bed… i will hug and kiss H and the dogs… the weather should be ok…
\n… the increased number of cameras and clothing items i am going back with barely fit into my bag…
\n… HCR meter pointing up… the COVID vaccine mandates, the Justice Department suing Texas over its draconian new law… the actions taken by the Biden administration more popular than not…
\n", "date_published": "2021-09-10T02:18:37-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/09/10/first-thoughts-going.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/09/09/first-thoughts-hcr.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… HCR meter neutral, a discussion of Republican bad behavior over the past 50 years which, one gets the impressions, there has not been much to match on the Democratici side… it seems clear that Republicans view themselves as being involved in a existential situation and are pulling out all the stops to stay in power… and have always done so, except when they were on the side of right and multiculturalism and the Democrats were the racists and purveyors of white supremacy… back in the Civil War era…
\n… H reports that L has become fed up with M and P and is washing their hands of the care of M and P and plans to rent a house during the wedding of their daughter… i am wondering if H is going to have to jump into the breach to take care of M and P… H is resisting that but i wonder if family loyalty and nursing instincts will kick in… at any rate, one hopes that M and L will come to appreciate H’s generosity of spirit and calmness in the face of difficult situations… i feel for them all… family turmoil not fun…
\n… this is my last full day in Florida and i am increasingly confident that M will be ok on their own… not that there won’t be sadnesses here and there… not that they won’t have moments of profound aloneness…
\n… i don’t think M has ever been alone in their life, jumping straight from childhood home to marriage…
\n… the other day M was speculating about how things might have been different had their childhood home situation not been difficult… would they have spent some time by themselves?… might they have gone to college? might they have become more independent?… would they have married D at all?… would R, J and i be here at all?… in that thought is the hint that the price for security has been high… further supported by the “free at last thought” the other day…
\n… yesterday a story about D’s intense jealousy preventing M and D from spending time with a couple M was close friends with… all because the spouse had a habit of touching, both men and women, on the arm when talking to them… a warm, friendly gesture which D refused to see as anything but hitting on M, even when they were the receiver of the touch gestures… they believed it was misdirection aimed at concealing lust for M…
\n… sadly, jealousy has kept M from lots of interactions with people she knew and cared about, including me, as i believe that jealousy was at the base of D’s anger towards me for the past 35 or 40 years… it’s not surprising that M has part of them saying “free at last”, and somewhat ironic that they are channeling Martin Luther King Jr. in doing so…
\n", "date_published": "2021-09-09T02:45:48-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/09/09/first-thoughts-hcr.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/09/08/first-thoughts-hcr.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… HCR meter positive… about the radicalization of the Republican party and the possibility that the radical gamble may not be paying off… we’ll see… would love if it were true…
\n… more and more i am looking forward to returning home… in the past month and a half, H and i have spent less than 24 hours in each other’s presence… it’s wearing thin… i miss the dogs and the cat too… i miss my home life…
\n… M continues to look ok to me… they are sad, for sure, a little uncertain about being on their own… but my assessment is that they will be ok… we should all be attentive after i leave and it will be good to come back for Christmas…
\n… i went to check out the Red Roof Inn we would probably stay in when we come down… it was nice as RR Inns go… a big one with three buildings arranged around a courtyard with, i think, a pool… it is within walking distance of Tin City, a fun tourist trap with shops and restaurants installed in old tin commercial fishing buildings… one of my rituals when visiting M and D was to have dinner in Tin City at least once… i liked the honky tonk nature of it and the generally ordinary people that went there…
\n… M keeps trying to have political conversations with me… it makes me uncomfortable… at least they don’t get angry with opposing views… they were questioning me about voter ID laws in ways i didn’t have a good immediate answer for… i just sent them an article on the subject that seemed reasonably balanced and described the issues involved… we’ll see what they think…
\n… the world is different without D around… much less tension in the air, which we all felt because of their tendency towards irrational anger explosions… M feeling guilty because the thought “free at last” was passing through their mind… i told them that feelings are feelings, they are neither right or wrong… what one does with and about feelings is the pivotal question… that is where right and wrong start to enter into things…
\n… M is propelling me back onto FB… they want a way to keep up with what is going on in my life… i hesitate to give them access to this blog because even though i am very circumspect about identity, feelings that may be distressing to them do get expressed in a public venue… this might be a signal that i shouldn’t post them, but the venue is not public in the sense that FB is and i resent not being able to express myself more publicly about what’s going on in my life…
\n", "date_published": "2021-09-08T02:49:56-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/09/08/first-thoughts-hcr.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/09/07/first-thoughts-beginning.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… beginning to look forward to getting home… miss H and the dogs… getting a little bored… M seems as though they will go on… a little sad… a little lacking in motivation… but otherwise ok… doing some future planning…
\n… HCR meter neutral to pointing downwards… about the voting rights landscape… about whether the multicultural majority will control the next many decades, or the mostly white minority will… the filibuster stands in the way of the former and so far, Dems have been unwilling to change it…
\n… have started reading a book on Issa haikus dealing with animals… i thought, when i bought it, that it was focused on animal symbology, and it does get into that, but the main focus is demonstrating Issa’s attitude towards animals, which was more or less a Buddhist attitude, and making an argument that he believed in the fair treatment of animals as that might be meant in our time, not his… i don’t know that i see the purpose of making such a case in a scholarly treatment of the poet… Buddhist belief systems generally treat all life forms as fellow travelers in the universe… as part of the web of life… i suppose i prefer the web of life view in general, even as i consider machine intelligence, and what might be evolving in the entire life/consciousness/thought system… having just finished George Dyson’s Analogia, which makes the case that machines and the coding that runs them will, have(?), reached the point of self determination and self reproduction, but not without needing us as a sublayer of their existence… this is perhaps the more benign way it could go, if indeed it is going that way… human beings not at the top of the intelligence chain, but necessary to it and therefore guaranteed a place in it going forward… i need to pick up Ken Wilbur’s book and read it again… i think it dovetails with the Dyson ideas… one question remains, however… this whole human machine thing maintains the possibility of self annihilation… how will this machine/human complex avoid destroying itself?… is violence an unavoidable part of all cultural thought systems?…
\n", "date_published": "2021-09-07T02:15:27-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/09/07/first-thoughts-beginning.html", "tags": ["heather cox richardson","haiku","voting rights","issa","animal symbolism","ai","george dyson","analogia"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/09/04/first-thoughts-r.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… R and J go back to the West Coast… just M and me for the next week… then, M will be on her own… that will be a difficult place for her i am guessing…
\n… went to the beach to have dinner… watched the sunset…
\n\n ![\"\"](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/38689/2021/d7d1f69bb5.jpg\")
\n\n\n
… weighed in, 227.0 lbs… good news… was a little worried that i have gained in the past week…
\n… the HCR meter pointing decidedly down… a discussion of the Texas fetal heartbeat abortion law… a discussion about how similar laws could undermine civil rights… the whole situation awful…
\n… J up… i thought i heard M too…
\n", "date_published": "2021-09-04T01:26:27-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/09/04/first-thoughts-r.html", "tags": ["heather cox richardson","abortion","dad"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/09/03/first-thoughts-more.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… more drinking last night… not as bad as the other night…
\n… a dream about LS last night… a dream about toying with the idea of an affair with them… we both wanted it… i was resisting it because i was married… i was resisting it because i knew it would get complicated…
\n… having some political conversations with M… at least they don’t get really angry… they are firmly in the Fox silo though… i suppose i look like i am firmly in the MSNBC silo to them… important to work with facts… M is possibly fungible on their conservativism… R and J stayed largely out of it…
\n… hauled most of D’s stuff to Goodwill… some more today…
\n… R is not sure he wants the Rolex watch either…
\n… we uncovered another camera… a pretty fancy for its time Minolta… google searches determine that none of the equipment is particularly valuable presently and that the lenses are outperformed by today’s lenses though current lenses are not built as well… just finished reading a review that claims the Maxxum is one of the best film cameras ever made… that is not necessarily concurred with by other reviewers… of the cameras i have inherited, the two film cameras are most interesting and perhaps i will find some film and use them to whatever effect they are capable of…
\n… i am sitting here feeling very warm…
\n… HCR meeter slightly downward to slightly upward… a discussion of the history of anti-abortion politics that began when Nixon wanted the Catholic vote which normally went Democratic… abortion was made an issue to divide that constituency and win elections… she points out that the country is fairly unified on the issue and wants Roe V. Wade to stand… that it is a minority driving it as a wedge issue that wins elections… she suggests that there will be considerable blowback around the Texan anti-abortion legislation passed yesterday… let’s hope so… i, for one, will abandon any ideas i had about traveling to Texas until they undo the legislation insanity they have recently embarked on…
\n", "date_published": "2021-09-03T02:37:56-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/09/03/first-thoughts-more.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","abortion"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/09/02/first-thoughts-in.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… in bed at 9:30, up at 4:30, about 7 hours… not bad, woke up once…
\n… yesterday we bagged up all D’s clothing and sorted through their things… each of us taking what fit, what we wanted, which in my case is not much as little fit and D’s tastes were more conservative than mine… R got sad and had to go off by themselves for a while… i found it more interesting than sad… D had a lot of clothes… two big closets… and everything was new or showed negligible amounts of wear… i wear things pretty much till they wear out… i have two or three pairs of pants, maybe four… D had at least 20 pairs of jeans, two or three times that amount of shirts, a number of belts equal to the number of jeans… some jeans had their particular belts installed in the loops, ready to be put on… today we haul it all off to Good Will…
\n… lots of texting with H… big rains in Beacon… the remnants of Ida passing through… H has been experiencing many frustrations since i left and said they are depressed… they are depressed a lot lately it seems to me… i hope it lifts…
\n… HCR meter pointing hard down… about laws being signed into existence in Texas that will likely make it impossible for women to get an abortion and will set up “vigilante” citizens as the enforcers… what could go wrong with that?… another law legalizes concealed carry of weapons without a permit… another law limits voting rights and permits partisan patrolling of voting stations where voters can now be intimidated by gun toting zealots… what could go wrong with that?… even worse, the Supreme court has refused to knock down these strategies… has refused to even hear arguments on them… has refused even to issue justice opinions on them… they are largely being carried out on the “shadow” docket… so now we have another thing the Biden/Harris administration must deal with in the next year and two months… we are a country in decline, and radical conservatives are a circling band of hyenas… i am thinking i will boycot Texas unless sanity gets restored there…
\n", "date_published": "2021-09-02T02:29:42-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/09/02/first-thoughts-in.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","abortion","voting rights","dad"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/08/29/first-thoughts-hours.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… 24 hours without having to run the AC, OMG, feels so good…
\n… HCR Meter pointing downward… about the need for voting rights legislation… about the need to overcome resistance to eliminating the filibuster… about the idea(fact) that there will almost certainly be a radically conservative president in 2024 if it is not… i find it hard to believe that Democrats will allow themselves to be forever out of power, or that the consequences are really that dire… but here we are… at present they are poised to fritter away an opportunity to keep the U.S. for the people…
\n… day two since dad passing… feeling OK… looking forward to seeing Mom, brother and sister on Monday… not looking forward to traveling… not looking forward to being in Florida where the virus is raging…
\n… H comes home today… we will have about 20 hours together before i have to climb on a plane and fly to Florida… be gone for almost 2 weeks… return on the 10th… a week later we get to go to Block Island, enjoy my niece’s wedding celebration and then relax and reflect on the challenging couple of months we have had…
\n", "date_published": "2021-08-29T02:16:44-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/08/29/first-thoughts-hours.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","voting rights","dad"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/08/28/first-thoughts-in.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… in bed at 9:30, up at 3:00 AM… at least i slept through…
\n… the day after dad’s passing… the melancholy is subsiding… lots of thoughts about seeing Mom and my brother and sister… wondering if the expected improvement in family dynamics will materialize… worried about my sister annoying me, which she has the capacity to do… i will find out come Monday…
\n… Fiona being very fussy about her food… only way to get her to eat much is to sprinkle it with freeze dried organ dust… she seems not to like the kibble and it hasn’t helped much to home make wet food… she might need more exercise to pique her appetite…
\n… the heat has finally broken… i may actually get the stairs in place if not completely finished…
\n… a major hurricane heading straight for Louisiana… will hit tomorrow the x year anniversary of Katrina…
\n… HCR meter mixed… about the contest of individualism and collectivism in the U.S… not at all clear which will come out on top…
\n… a day or two ago, i read an interesting article on slime mold… i appear not to have published it… now i have… the idea that the view of races as being inferior/superior is a social construct and that it has been constructed in service of white supremacy… the idea that humanity sits on top of an intelligence pyramid has also been constructed in service of white supremacy… it makes sense to me…
\n", "date_published": "2021-08-28T01:56:59-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/08/28/first-thoughts-in.html", "tags": ["heather cox richardson","white supremacy","fiona","dad"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/08/27/first-thoughts-i.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… i went to bed angry last night… as i noted the anger i was feeling it wasn’t clear to me what i was angry about… i told myself i was angry at H for not being able to get back immediately so i could get to Florida sooner… i told myself i was angry with my father for arranging the timing of his death to cause maximum havoc in my life… i told myself i was angry with my sister for her smug, best daughter ever was of handling the end of a life that i know caused her considerable pain… i told myself i was angry with the weather for being brutally hot at precisely the wrong moment to allow me to finish rebuilding the back stairs… i told myself that i was angry with my skin, that because i have to be so protective of it i have to wear long sleeved sun protective shirts, neck gators, a hat, to protect myself, which means the heat is even more brutal to me… i told myself that i was angry with my left foot because it chose this moment to develop significant pain which limited my limited ability to get anything done… i am angry that i have to fly down to Florida rather than drive as i had planned… in the end, nothing is anybody’s fault, it’s just me being irritated that i have little control over the flow of events which seemed presently configured to thwart me at every turn…
\n… news yesterday that hospice nursing felt Dad had at best two days… he will almost certainly pass before i get there and may have been passed for a day or two before i can get there… as i have written before, i have no burning desire to be there… the man didn’t like me and the feeling was mutual… i am, if anything, looking forward to family gatherings without his angry presence… to a family that can relax a little because it doesn’t have to fear angry outbursts, walk on eggshells around him all the time… i am looking forward to being free of that…
\n… the HCR meter down pointing significantly today… Afghan terror attack killing U.S. military and civilians… conservatives behaving shamelessly… COVID ripping through Florida where i have to fly in a few days… i had planned to avoid people on my trip to Florida… i have been forced into a situation where i can’t… another thing to be angry about… if you step back and take in the big picture, it looks a lot like the failure of a state…
\n", "date_published": "2021-08-27T02:04:20-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/08/27/first-thoughts-i.html", "tags": ["pandemic","heather cox richardson","dad","afghanistan"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/08/26/first-thoughts-news.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… news that dad has taken a turn for the worse… it sounds like he won’t last through the weekend… H has arranged herself to get back on Sunday… not sure what my plans are other than as already established… i have no great need to be there when he passes… my sister is there now, so mom has somebody to be with her through it… it’s possible i will fly down, but only if there is some kind of service or memorial happening that requires my presence earlier than already planned… i believe my sister said he is to be cremated… if that is the case, there won’t be any urgency to whatever services may be planned… so mostly i am on track to arrive Monday, September 6…
\n… i am a little melancholy… i am pretty sure it’s not because i will miss my father… i don’t think i will… melancholy attends what comes to an end for a variety of reasons… all endings are deaths of a kind, so there is a general melancholy attached to that… deaths in particular carry the melancholy of knowing one day it will be you… probably there is melancholy in the feeling that i had a biological father who couldn’t find his way to anything but anger towards me, so for the last two to three decades, i didn’t really have a father…
\n… i look forward to time with my mother and, hopefully, a few occasions where we all gather as a family without his complicating and generally negative presence… he has been a kind of Death Star as far as i am concerned…
\n… the HCR meter today points slightly positive… news that congressional inquiry into the final months of 45’s administration is casting a broad net… news that the evacuation from Afghanistan continues with tens of thousands of evacuees flown out every day… news that the situation is deteriorating, turmoil ahead… news that the Harlem Hell Fighters from WW I have finally been awarded congressional medals of honor for their courageous fighting during the war…
\n", "date_published": "2021-08-26T02:53:32-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/08/26/first-thoughts-news.html", "tags": ["heather cox richardson","dad"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/08/24/first-thoughts-hcr.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… HCR meeter pointing slightly up…
\n… diner with friends last night… managed to avoid having too much wine… delicious dinner of African mint sausage and grapes, with a side of puréed celery root… celery root was especially delicious… felt the sausage was a little overcooked, dried out… company was great…
\n… Chas began whining at 3 AM… just my luck on a morning i want to sleep in a little…
\n… today begins back stair reconstruction… going to be hot next few days, but no rain predicted… demolition of existing stairs today… take stock of existing conditions and make final decisions of how to proceed… hopefully i have the right materials in place… if not, i will have to get untreated lumber as i won’t have time to let it dry out at all…
\n… as i get more organized about my reading, i wonder about organizing it to the point that i might start writing organized and thoroughly edited posts on the rabbit holes i am exploring… that is something that i have never mustered the determination to do… could i even get to the place where i publish a book?…
\n… do i need to or could carefully considered and edited posts suffice?… i think i am more likely to head in that direction…
\n… my copy of Bertrand Russell’s Analysis of Matter has arrived… i sloughed my way through it before and during the pandemic… i am contemplating reading it again with extensive note taking…
\n", "date_published": "2021-08-24T04:04:07-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/08/24/first-thoughts-hcr.html", "tags": ["pandemic","heather cox richardson","afghanistan","panpsychism","bertrand russell","analysis of matter"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/08/21/first-thoughts-hcr.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… HCR meter at negative… focused on the history of education of black and brown people especially, all people with limited resources generally… it points to how the Republican party has continuously undermined public education to the detriment of minorities and underprivileged, indirectly and directly benefiting the whites and the affluent in general… i believe in public education… i am a product of it… i believe the nation does well more broadly when everyone has access to quality education… i also believe public education unifies the nation in that it instills a more tightly shared set of values and understandings about our history, the structure of our government, the means to conduct civil society… i absolutely reject white supremacy and any kind of elitism based on race or clan or party… “of the people, by the people, for the people,”…
\n… hurricane Henri is approaching… it doesn’t look like it will be a big deal in the Hudson Valley, but H is on Block Island which looks like it may get a direct hit… it will be at best a category 1 hurricane, capable of doing a lot of damage, but not catastrophic damage… there are likely to be power outages, trees down, some damage to structures… H is likely to loose power and may be out of touch if it lasts long enough for her phone to run out of power… she says they have prepared… not clear if P stayed with them on the island… wondering how M and L will fare in Essex Connecticut?…
\n… our landscaper came and did more weeding and garden cleanup, it is starting to look civilized out back… i am expecting to complete the carpentry of the paneling in the dining room this weekend, possibly even painting next week… also need to rebuild the back stairs next week… hoping there will be an opportunity later in the week… i figure i need a couple of days… after checking the extended forecast, it looks like Tue, Wed, Thu will be my days… at present, no rain, low humidity, high 80’s low 90’s… a little warmer than i would like but otherwise… after that, rain and humidity return…
\n… today i will need to secure loose items and generally prepare for the storm… shouldn’t take too long…
\n", "date_published": "2021-08-21T01:58:27-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/08/21/first-thoughts-hcr.html", "tags": ["heather cox richardson","henri","hurricane"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/08/20/first-thoughts-hcr.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… HCR meter pointing downwards… discussion of conservative extremism as evidenced by policies against mask and vaccine mandates… it’s really bleak and threatening… at present, the only remedy appears to be some form of federal voting rights legislation which the Senate can’t pass without making a change in the filibuster… several moderate Democrats Senators have said they will not vote to change the filibuster… what’s most depressing and frightening is that both sides view the current situation as an existential threat… this is the kind of thing that has already and will continue to lead to bloodshed…
\n… no alcohol last night, in at 9:30 PM, up at 4:00 AM… 6.5 hours of sleep… yup, that seems about right…
\n… finished The Essential Haiku yesterday, started Conscious, by Annaka Harris… i read a Brain Pickings post about it a couple of days ago and decided to buy it… i am 25 pages into it and was thinking that the development of ideas about consciousness in the book seemed a bit confused and unsound… i know that the book is heading towards presenting the concept of panpsychism, because of the Brain Pickings post and because there is a chapter labeled “Beyond Panpsychism” about 3/4 of the way through the book… an embrace of panpsychism would undercut some of the reasoning in the parts i have read so far, which flits around the trickiness of deciding when matter becomes “conscious”… the dividing lines are not clear and where we presently draw them doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny… so i am thinking the author is confused and muddled but it occurs to me that they are setting us up to introduce panpsychism as the resolution of the muddle… so i think i know why they are proceeding the way they are… at my present rate of reading, i will be done with the book in a few days…
\n… K comes today to continue with the weeding an mulching of the garden… i have done some work on the other side of the garden and it looks like we will be close to complete by the time H gets home…
\n… i am looking forward to driving down to Florida and back… the time spent there will be emotionally fraught as J will be frail and continuing on the path of heart failure, and C will be stressed out and sad, and my own emotions will be complex because of my poor relationship with J… so i focus on the three days of travel at either end… time to process… the possibilities of some minor adventures…
\n… i am feeling a little anxious about my skin exam next week, though i am not presently concerned about any skin anomalies… will be glad to have that past me…
\n… Chas to the vet yesterday… he’s gained a large amount of weight, 8 lbs according to the vet’s record… we decided to do a blood panel that included thyroid indicators… we’ve had several dogs in the pat with thyroid issues… fortunately, that is easy to treat… the visit cost nearly $470… we used to be able to get out of there for around $200… both Chas and Fiona got vaccinated for Bordetella, aka, Kennel Cough, yesterday… apparently it is going around… the vet says they have seen doggie patients at the rate of 1 per day that have it… it sounds like there is a cluster in one family in Beacon or Beacon vicinity…
\n", "date_published": "2021-08-20T02:20:16-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/08/20/first-thoughts-hcr.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","voting rights","fiona","chas","road trip","dad"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/08/19/first-thoughts-dinner.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… dinner with D & E last night… really nice time… got to express my thoughts more than i do with H present… drank a little too much wine but it was good fun…
\n… HCR meter neutral to negative today… speculation that the Taliban can/will be held in check for a while through the withholding of foreign aid which the country is totally dependent on… it’s wait and see… also, incredulity that the U.S. Government had no idea that there would be such a rapid collapse of the military forces trained by the U.S.… that there had been a fundamental misunderstanding of the Afghan people…
\n… eye on the weather for next week… will have to shift to rebuilding the back stairs and so far, the weather is not looking cooperative… on the other hand, the weather app (Dark Sky) has seemed inaccurate lately, who knows what it will be… i’ve installed Weather Bar on my desktop… lets see if it is any more informative and accurate…
\n… in the meantime, finishing up the dining room panel project is my next few days… should have it all done by Friday(?)… certainly by end of the weekend… probably be able to get it painted before H returns from BI which i hope will make her smile…
\n… i’ve been neglecting photo processing during dining room construction… i am getting out and making the pictures, iPhone only, but no processing or sharing…
\n… i have booked my hotel stays for the journey down to Florida… first night, Lynchburg VA, second night, Savannah GA… now for the journey back… then figure out a few sights that don’t take long to see… starting to look forward to it even though visiting with my parents will be a bit sad and stressful…
\n", "date_published": "2021-08-19T02:50:07-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/08/19/first-thoughts-dinner.html", "tags": ["heather cox richardson","afghanistan"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/08/17/first-thoughts-hcr.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… HCR meter negative… about the lightning speed collapse of the U.S. trained Afghan army which was, apparently the result of negotiated cease fires between those armies and the Taliban… that the U.S. seemed to have no idea of what was going on seems implausible, or, if indeed the case, pretty troubling… at the end she goes on a bit of a rant against conservative politicians trying to make the Afghan situation the Biden/Harris admin’s fault… i know she tilts strongly liberal, but i wish she hadn’t done that…
\n… dust up with my sister yesterday… trying to think what sort of olive branch i can extend…
\n… WooHoo!… a Red Roof Inn in Savannah Georgia and it is only $56 dollars a night and highly rated by customers!… and, there is a Red Roof in Charlottesville, much more expensive… may need to locate one outside of the city… would like to keep overnight costs near $300 for entire trip… the adventure is coalescing…
\n… rain coming, probably tropical storm remnants, need to protect the lumber drying in the driveway, finish wee whacking in the back…
\n", "date_published": "2021-08-17T02:54:26-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/08/17/first-thoughts-hcr.html", "tags": ["heather cox richardson","afghanistan","florida trip"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/08/16/first-thoughts-the.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… the HRC meter points downward today… Kabul Afghanistan fell to the Taliban last night… Ashraf Gahni, president of the U.S. backed Afghan government has fled to Tajikistan… apparently the military the U.S. trained was only interested in a paycheck, not defending the U.S. created government… what a waste of “treasure,” as it is often put… lives and money… then context of the world is shifting away from Europe and the U.S. to the asiatic countries… my own assessment, not HCR’s…
\n… meanwhile, my Dad was at the center of conversation yesterday, the family Zoom meeting, text conversations with H about how to manage in September, when i will head down to Florida for what could be an extended stay, not allowing me to get back to New York in time to travel out to BI for my niece’s wedding… it’s all up in the air…
\n… a bit of a frustrating day yesterday… was on track to get a number of things done, including weed whacking and cleaning up in the back yard… then i ran out of whacking cable… then i went out to get some more… then i made the decision to get it at Lowes in Newburgh… then, on the way, i saw the traffic backed up for at least three exits… then i thought i will go back via 17… then when i did, it turns out that the traffic was backed up there too… then it took way too long to get back… then i gave up on finishing the yard work… then i thought, tomorrow’s another day… here it is tomorrow, i will endeavor to finish the yard work and get back to dining room carpentry…
\n… it is turning out that i will have to travel to Florida over Labor Day weekend… sigh… not what i would have preferred… i will begin to finalize the planning this week…
\n", "date_published": "2021-08-16T01:45:08-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/08/16/first-thoughts-the.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","dad"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/08/15/first-thoughts-awoke.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… awoke with a start this AM, realizing i had forgotten to take my BP meds yesterday… a very rare occurrence… back on track now…
\n… months ago, i bought a vertical mouse, partly because a very expensive track ball had failed, and partly in hopes that neck pain i was experiencing was some form of mousing injury… the pain has almost disappeared… can’t attribute it to the vertical mouse with absolute certainty, but it is an interesting coincidence… i should note also that the vertical mouse has felt very natural to use…
\n…the HCR meter this morning is neutral… it was all about how Social Security got enacted and the woman responsible for it, Frances Perkins, the first woman to hold a position in the U.S. Cabinet… it ends on a somewhat disquieting note, a quote from Ms. Perkins…
\nOne thing I know: Social Security is so firmly embedded in the American Psychology today that no politician, no political party, no political group could possibly destroy this Act and still maintain our democratic system. It is safe forever, and for the everlasting benefit of the people of the United States.1
\n… fast forward to today, Democracy is under attack and if the siege is successful, Social Security and other social safety net programs will be on the chopping block…
\n… i was reading about China yesterday… an article on their move to reign in their tech industry… they have given it unfettered existence to this point… one of the things they are doing is forcing platforms to play nice with one another, so that they can’t monopolize a space… this surfaced my enormous frustration with the distribution of films in this country… i have been wanting to watch the movies of Kelly Reichardt all together, one after the other… it’s impossible… they are available on different streaming services, or not available at all… one needs to sign up for every f’ng media service out there to do it… it shouldn’t be like that… i am all for companies making money from the content they own, but there must be a way that delivers more value to the customer… it should be available for rent on all services, even at a somewhat higher price, and can be offered as part of a subscription for free or lower cost on the streaming service with the rights to distribute… then services can compete to provide the best user experience, the best stable of content to provide free or lower cost, etc… nobody would have to sign up for half a dozen services to watch the variety of content they want to watch… the Chinese government could make this happen, that might be its advantage…
\nFrances Perkins via: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-14-2021 ↩︎
\nFirst Thoughts
\n… HCR meeter neutral today… about the census and the political machinations that will be attendant with redistricting… major point is that urban populations are underrepresented and rural populations are overrepresented… that rural, white minority populations will continue to press this advantage and urban majorities will increasingly not tolerate it… it sounds as thought there need to be changes in the way representation is calculated, on a per multiple thousands basis… it doesn’t sound like this requires a constitutional amendment from my read of this AM’s post… i just re-read, and yes indeed, Congress set the cap on number of representatives… the constitution is mute on the point… one wonders why there isn’t talk of changing the cap as an effective antidote to voter suppression etc…
\n… a less fraught day yesterday… i spoke with Mom, things seemed a little less dire when i talked with her about Dad’s condition though i learned that she has one way of thinking about my Dad sleeping in a chair, and my sister another… the former tries to get him not to do it and is frustrated at not being able to, the later believes he does it because it is more comfortable, which tracks with his condition… i think mom is in a little bit of denial… not that she doesn’t know where this is heading, but she would like it to slow down… Rick arrived last night… there have been no reports from him yet…
\n… the heat broke a little, but not completely… going to continue to be hot, though not as hot…
\n", "date_published": "2021-08-14T02:37:13-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/08/14/first-thoughts-hcr.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","dad","2020 census"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/08/09/first-thoughts-a.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… a friend once said that his day got off to a good or bad start depending on what Heather Cox Richardson had to say… it is similar for me, and today it’s a bad start… she calls a spade a spade… radical conservatives are working hard to move the country in an Authoritarian direction, praising Victor Orban, president of Hungary, whipping up anti-immigrant frenzy, telling their constituents that immigrants are to blame for the current Delta variant crises and blaming it on lax immigration policies of the Biden/Harris administration… it isn’t true… all to preserve the white male patriarchy hold on power… i saw this coming years ago… it is reaching the decisive point… the next three and a third years will be the pivot point or not…
\n… critical to stopping the authoritarian move is to enact federal voting rights legislation of some kind…
\n… i am feeling anxious about the coming day… anxious that there are too many things i should do and not enough time to do them… i will have to triage…
\n… K comes to weed the garden today… it will be a novel concept to have a well weeded garden…
\n… J and i talked a bit after the family call yesterday… we agreed that with current trends, we don’t expect J to last beyond October… my mood about that is somber… we are going where we are going… the goal is to get there with as little suffering as possible… certainly for J, but also for all of us around J… of course, accepting the inevitability of J’s death is accepting the inevitability of our own deaths… this makes it hard to face…
\n… time to be a bit more optimistic about the day!… i will get what needs to be done, done…
\n", "date_published": "2021-08-09T02:05:48-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/08/09/first-thoughts-a.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","dad","authoritarian"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/08/08/first-thoughts-heather.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… Heather Cox Richardson made a post today… she usually takes Saturday night off… however, Rod Rosen testimony has begun… there has been news reporting that 45 directly pressured the Justice Department to overturn the election… it was barely resisted… but, it was resisted and now it will be testified about… will be interesting to hear what the reporting is in the coming weeks… is the noose tightening around 45?… will there be justice served?… or will our system allow him the weasel away?… HCR is hopeful… stay tuned…
\n… E and B had a movie night last night… wasn’t totally in the mood, but went anyway… it was fun… it was outdoors… most surprising was that i wasn’t bitten by mosquitoes… fans seemed to do the trick of keeping them away…
\n… had to change track on construction projects… did some research on PT lumber and the consensus seems to be that it is good to let the lumber do some drying before installing it… so i set it up with air circulation and we will wait and see… in the meantime, i plan to move on to the dining room trim… i have some boards and should be able to get it started…
\n… i am glad to have no commitments today, other than family zoom…
\n… i purchased a subscription to SetApp… i think it will be less expensive in the long run, once i switch Ulysses over to being managed through it… i also really like the NotePlan app for tracking what you plan to do, what you do… there is an Instagram uploader that may be moderately helpful in posting my images…
\n… yesterday i didn’t turn the TV on at all… if i had been home last night, i would have watched a movies, but that is my plan, little TV for the time that H is on BI…
\n… also, i continue to spend very little time on FB or Instagram… not missing it that much… feeling more at peace… it helps to not engage in the desire disappointment cycle of being liked or not…
\n", "date_published": "2021-08-08T03:13:50-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/08/08/first-thoughts-heather.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","justice","45"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/08/07/first-thoughts-a.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… a long post from Heather Cox Richardson, the history of voting rights, the prospects for new legislation to protect rights… some hope that legislation will be formulated and passed, some hope that the Democrats will meet the dire situation… if they fail to pass legislation, the country is heading down the road of authoritarianism…
\n… curious movie last night… Test Pattern… about sexual assault, a young woman with a boyfriend goes out with a friend, gets drugged and raped… the drugs made her appear to be willing… though she was not… the bulk of the movie centers on her boyfriends insistence that she go to a hospital and have a rape kit administered, and where it gets interesting, the boyfriend is borderline controlling and possessive… it’s more important to him that she do it than to her… that she is black and he white adds further complexities to the situation… the movie is inconclusive about her and her relationship at the end… it’s interesting, critics seem to have loved the movie, audiences not so much, and i get that… intellectually i appreciate the movie, emotionally, i didn’t really connect…
\n… i decided yesterday to lay out a plan of what i thought i wanted to accomplish for the day, and then write down what i actually did… it was a mixed bag… things got done, things i had been intending to do, or needed to do, but not everything i planned…
\n", "date_published": "2021-08-07T02:21:38-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/08/07/first-thoughts-a.html", "tags": ["heather cox richardson","voting rights","movies"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/08/06/first-thoughts-h.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… H safely delivered to M… trip home quick, easy… dogs happy to be released, Fiona refusing her food… i will make dog food today…
\n… Heather Cox Richardson wrote about the Civil War today, the moment when the tide of it changed… the brutality of the war… the hatred that must have existed… we are not there yet in the present day… i hope we never get there…
\n… robotics on my mind… evolution on my mind… we will advance our ability to make machines regardless… i have long speculated that intelligence was moving forward through the machines we make… the problem with machines is the people who make them… they can do tremendous good, or tremendous harm… at present, it all depends on the people who commission and deploy them… i wrote a micro poem about this…
\nThe world of robotics,
\nis the world of robotics—
\nand yet…
\n… in the format of the famous Issa haiku, The world of dew…
\n… the dogs don’t seem concerned about the absence of H…
\n… i wonder how the chocolates we brought to M and R were?… they certainly had interesting flavors and were beautiful enough…
\n", "date_published": "2021-08-06T01:30:29-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/08/06/first-thoughts-h.html", "tags": ["heather cox richardson","haiku","micro poem","issa","my poetry"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/08/05/first-thoughts-a.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… a text from J, during the night, they spoke to C who says J is slowing down considerably, not able to make and eat breakfast… they say they are glad that R and i will visit soon…
\n… exploring SetApp… i try to take a look at one new app a day, i have found two that seem worth my while, NotePlan in particular seems to be the task and planning app i’ve been waiting for all my life… combining note taking, task setting and calendar all together… it, combined with Ulysses should be enough to justify its cost… if i find one or two more that are useful, icing on the cake…
\n… today i take H over to M and R’s house, from there, they will spring M from rehab and take them back to Block Island… H will stay with M on the island for as long as it takes to be sure they are able to function, with or without help… or the end of the month, when they will have to be back to care for the dogs while i drive to Florida and back…
\n… Heather Cox Richardson’s post was about how the conservative stance on COVID19 (reinforcing vaccine disinformation, banning mask wearing and downplaying the virus altogether) is boomeranging on them as the Delta variant burns through the unvaccinated who are overwhelmingly the ones catching it, being hospitalized with it and dying from it… with any luck, conservative disenchantment with their leaders and happiness with the economic help the Biden/Harris administration has organized will lead to control of House and Senate remaining in the hands of Democrats… it would likely mean the end of the threat to democracy for the time being…
\n", "date_published": "2021-08-05T02:10:22-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/08/05/first-thoughts-a.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","dad","family"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/08/04/first-thoughts-last.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… last night, just before going to bed, i let the dogs out… big commotion, one dog comes when called, the other doesn’t… go to investigate, the other dog is rubbing his face in the dirt, the air smells of skunk… sigh… second dog had to be bathed before going to bed… dog children… love them most of the time, damn annoying on occasion…
\n… we visited D and J yesterday, friends of H’s from the PBGV world… they wanted to meet Fiona and see what it might be like to have a GBGV… D has prostate cancer and the sense i got was that it wasn’t going well… D seemed depressed… it made me thoughtful…
\n… news broke about the release of the AG’s report investigating charges of sexual harassment by Andrew Cuomo… calls for his resignation or, if he refuses to, impeachment, began immediately… it has never occurred to me to harass any woman… i don’t understand men who do…
\n… Heather Cox Richardson talked about the Biden/Harris administration’s efforts to help impoverished people… at the beginning of the administration i thought that they needed to do enough that positively affected ordinary people’s lives that those people could be peeled away from 45… HCR thinks that is part of the plan too…
\n… i have been thinking that one of my shortcomings in life has been an inability to decide on big and deep efforts, then plan and execute them… i am going to change that… part of my problem is that i get lost in the weeds of the planning, and then fail to execute…
\n… tomorrow i take H to her brother’s house in CT and then come back without her… she and M will pick up M from rehab and take her out to Block Island… H will stay with her to make sure she is able to care for herself or has the help she needs… we don’t know how long that will take… while she is gone, i plan to get things done… i will rebuild the rear steps, paint the bay window, progress with the installation of trim in the dining room… i will tend the garden, work on my photography, and enjoy being on my own for a bit…
\n", "date_published": "2021-08-04T02:04:14-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/08/04/first-thoughts-last.html", "tags": ["heather cox richardson","andrew cuomo"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/08/03/first-thoughts-heather.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… Heather Cox Richardson is about Tucker Carlson, Hungary, Victor Orban, Christian authoritarianism, and how the United States is being pushed in the same direction… it saddens me that at present it is hard to perceive that this push will not succeed… i have no desire to live under Christian authoritarianism, or any other kind of authoritarianism… Democrats have been unwilling to do what is needed to reverse course… or at least a handful of Democrats…
\n… i once told someone that i have no interest in power, at least the kind of power that is power over… i loath people who have power and use it to shape the world to their personal vision of how things should be… i loath minorities that try to do the same… one size fits all is rarely a good solution… one size does not fit all… multicultural adjustability fits all…
\n… i started looking into Non-Fungible Token art yesterday… i find myself getting excited about making art in a way i haven’t been for a while… there is a way of making and distributing things i have been making but didn’t know what to do with… the flattened cans project, the video stills project… there are also the image poems, a short sequence of images played in video fashion… it seems to be opening up possibilities for exhibiting and selling… it seems to offer a chance to bypass the gate keepers… of course, there is no reason there will be any more interest in my work than there is now, just because the venue for sharing changes… there are issues with NFTs, especially environmental ones… they require a great deal of computing resources as individual object certificates (and the objects?) get distributed across many servers around the world… the redundancy is what protects the system from fraud…
\n", "date_published": "2021-08-03T02:16:03-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/08/03/first-thoughts-heather.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","christian","nft's","tucker carlson","authoritarian"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/07/30/first-thoughts-i.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… i rescued a centipede from the kitchen sink this morning… i rescued one yesterday too… i wonder if it is the same one?… stainless steel kitchen sinks make good centipede traps…
\n… i also did not drink alcohol last night… two nights running… kitchen all cleaned up when i came down… coffee ready to go, my body happier… mind, take note…
\n… Heather Cox Richardson is a mixed bag this morning… she talks about the extremism of the Republican Party, about its continued enthrallment with 45, about voter suppression… but also how there appear to be fishers… apparently 45 backed a candidate in a recent election in Texas and lost… the justice department has declined to defend a member of congress from a lawsuit by Eric Swalwell nor will it assert an executive privilege defense for any member of congress against congressional subpoenas… they will have to spend their own money on defense which may help speed up the January 6th inquiry… unless, of course, private donors step in…
\n… i have stopped watching much news… even Nicole Wallace, one of my favorites… i don’t think the daily news adds much to my understanding of what is going on and it does much to disturb my peace of mind… H has been kindly keeping the volume down most of the time…
\n… H will be heading out to Block Island with her mother at the end of next week… it is unclear how long she will be there… hoping it is long enough that i can get a couple of house projects done…
\n", "date_published": "2021-07-30T01:50:59-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/07/30/first-thoughts-i.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/07/27/first-thougths-a.html", "content_html": "First Thougths
\n… a good day yesterday…
\n… some research and thinking about web presence, nothing conclusive… assemblage of some ideas… the main decision being whether to have a news letter only, or a second blog site where more carefully composed writing happens…
\n… a good walk, photographs made and edited, there were some good ones…
\n… a nice dinner
\n… it was a perfect summer dinner that met my dietary goals, low animal fat, low carb…
\n… the news from Heather Cox Richardson is of the more distressing kind this morning… 45 is consolidating power, continuing to divide the nation, trying to undermine the bi-partisan infrastructure bill… HCR wrote:
\nOne of the hallmarks of a personality like that of former president Donald Trump is that he cannot stop escalating. It’s not that he won’t stop; it’s that he can’t stop. And he will escalate until someone finally draws a line and holds it.
\n… 45 needs to be god… he won’t stop trying to be god until someone draws that line and there are consequences for stepping over it… this is what bothers me so much… the inability of our governing system to hold him accountable… we have completely failed on that score and with every passing day that we continue our failure, the closer we come to a dictatorship… this is what keeps me awake at night…
\n", "date_published": "2021-07-27T01:28:57-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/07/27/first-thougths-a.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","cooking"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/07/21/first-thoughts-in.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… in bed at 9 PM, awake at 3 AM, is six hours all i need?…
\n… Heather Cox Richardson is all about the arrest of Billionaire Thomas Barrack for obstruction of justice and lobbying for a foreign government without disclosure… as i am reading about the connections between rich and powerful people i have the thought, what does an ordinary life, my ordinary life, amount to?…
\n… yesterday Jeff Bezos flew into space on rocketry and capsule he paid for… he and the crew returned to earth safely… the beginning of space travel?… space tourism?… i still am of the opinion that it is a waste of time to put people in space… it’s really the machines we need to send there…
\n… no alcohol last night… did i sleep better?… i’m not sure, certainly didn’t sleep longer…
\n… no appointments, no encumbrances, a longer walk is called for… maybe up the mountain today… haven’t done that in a while and it’s a good workout…
\n… i am back to processing most of my pictures to black and white… the exception is the occasional image for which color is the primary point of the image… i very much like the aesthetic of black and white and often struggle to get color photographs to be natural…
\n… i have been processing the thought that religious ignorance is an attempt to achieve immortality… the first and most fundamental thing we try to be ignorant about is our own death… we struggle to face it… religion aids us in being ignorant… this isn’t formulated quite right… maybe it is more that we give ourselves over to religious superstition so that we can believe in immortality… not all religions… but most of them… most of them offer the balm that life of some sort continues after death… so this is a kind of willful ignorance to give ourselves the perception that life does not end, it just transforms…
\n", "date_published": "2021-07-21T01:36:07-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/07/21/first-thoughts-in.html", "tags": ["heather cox richardson","religion","immortality","thomas barrack","jeff bezos","space travel"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/07/18/first-thoughts-a.html", "content_html": "First Thoughts
\n… a better night for sleep…
\n… a new electric shaver arriving today, why am i excited?…
\n… it strikes me that what i wrote about the shaver could become a micro poem…
\n… the birds are singing… do i hear a cardinal?…
\n… last night, Heather Cox Richardson wrote about John Lewis and the voting rights act of 1965 and the wholesale attack by Republicans on voting rights, passing restrictive laws which disproportionately affect minorities negatively… it’s an old story, dating back well before the 1965 voting rights act to the Jim Crow south… some, too many, white people want power over everybody and everything else… democracy is not a tool they can successfully use to maintain that power, so they narrow the path to voting which they know will peel away more minority voters than white voters…
\n… ahh… the cardinal is singing outside my window…
\n… i have been working on de-googling my self… i have switched to duckduckgo as a search engine… i am working on leaving gmail having set up a new ProtonMail account… i have switched to a new feed reader, Reeder, can i import my feeds from Feedly?… only by installing them as a service… well, at least i am holding google at arm’s length?…
\n… H up early…
\n… we finally had some thunder storms yesterday which broke the heat a little bit… maybe some work can be done in the garden today…
\n", "date_published": "2021-07-18T02:48:28-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/07/18/first-thoughts-a.html", "tags": ["heather cox richardson","voting rights"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/07/16/first-thoughts-feeling.html", "content_html": "01 First Thoughts:
\n… feeling so much better this morning… no sleep interruption from the dogs, little alcohol last night…
\n… Heather Cox Richardson mentioned Tucker Carlson… the hairs stand up on the back of my neck… a despicable person… i keep thinking there has to be a way to regulate misinformation, that if we don’t find a way, we are doomed…
\n… i am increasingly thinking i will remove myself from the services of the big tech companies, google, twitter, Facebook, instagram, etc… yesterday i created a ProtonMail account… i will withdraw from conducting personal business on gmail…
\n… a micro.blog member posted a quote by Carl Sagan, written in 1996, that is so prescient…
\n_ “I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time – when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness…_
\nThe dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance”1
\n… what is the antidote?… it begins with killing the filibuster and passage of voting rights legislation… it then moves on to legislation to curb the spreading of disinformation, such as a modern day Fairness Doctrine… there are freedom of speech issues with it for sure, but propaganda masquerading as opinion is presently extremely unhealthy to society… one has to be held accountable for spreading demonstrably false information when it is done willfully, maliciously and/or for selfish and political reasons… there should be certain speech, sharing and topics of conversation that are banned altogether, as in Germany and some other European countries, where the ideology and symbology of White Supremacy and Nazism are banned…
\n… i don’t believe a society can function well with absolute freedom of the individual, there need to be boundaries… a certain amount of individual freedom must be given up for a greater good… the balance of individual freedom vs. greater good should be managed by substantive debate in the public and a continuous review and revision of the curbs, but the curbs need to be there…
\nCarl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/632474-i-have-a-foreboding-of-an-america-in-my-children-s ↩︎
\n01 First Thoughts
\n… no middle of the night waking by either dog, but Chas is ready promptly at 4 AM… it’s ok, no alcohol last night and in bed more or less on time…
\n… the heat should break today… there isn’t anything abnormal about a few days of this kind of heat at this time of year… not like the Pacific Northwest where temperatures are breaking records, and in the case of British Columbia, setting an all time record… 116 degrees!…
\n… this morning’s Heather Cox Richardson is all about how the oil and gas industry are lobbying states for legislation that favors the fossil fuel industry and makes it harder to pursue green energy strategies… the problem with capitalism… money equals power and big oil and gas have lots of money… interests are entrenched… numerous states depend substantially on the oil and gas industry for jobs and revenue… we should be better at adjusting but the market capitalist system often makes it difficult to do what is beneficial in the long run…
\n… a sweet story about Gertrude Tate and Alice Austin love affair in Brain Pickings… Alice Austin was a pioneering photographer… Maria Popova describes her work as brilliant, i am not as clear that it was, but she was both pursuing photography and loving a woman when both were difficult to do… i think her genius was in just getting out and doing it, recording people, in dignified portraits… here is an example…
\n\n ![\"\"](\"https://i1.wp.com/www.brainpickings.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/aliceausten_streettypes2.jpg?w=950&ssl=1\")
\n\n\n
Street-cleaner at 34th Street, New York City, part of Alice Austen’s 1896 series Street Types of New York. (Alice Austen House archive.)
\n… trying out Craft after a high recommendation from a Micro.blog community member… trying to see where it might fit into my workflow…
\n… the internet is so freaking slow this AM… that is what i hoped i was leaving behind when i came home… what gives?…
\n", "date_published": "2021-06-30T02:35:51-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/06/30/first-thoughts-no.html", "tags": ["photography","politics","heather cox richardson","women photographers","capitalism","lgbtq+","alice austin","craft","fossil fuel"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/06/20/heather-cox-richardson.html", "content_html": "02 Heather Cox Richardson
\n… HCR’s post this morning is mostly about voting rights and the strident efforts of conservatives to restrict them across the country at the state level…
\n… this week the Senate will vote on the For The People Act which enforces from the federal level increased access to voting and ends partisan gerrymandering…
\n… Democratic Senator Joe Manchin has propose compromises, republicans are trying to hold the line… if they do, back over to Manchin and the filibuster question…
\n… a significant week for the course of democracy in this country…
\n", "date_published": "2021-06-20T02:46:06-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/06/20/heather-cox-richardson.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/06/18/for-the-people.html", "content_html": "03 For The People
\n… this morning’s Heather Cox Richardson post suggests there is movement on the voting rights front… Senator Joe Manchin has made some proposals on voting rights, which were backed by Stacey Abrams… he has also indicated a willingness to modify the rules of the filibuster, only 55 senators would be needed to pass legislation and 60 senators would be required to keep a filibuster going… meanwhile, a Republican running for office in Florida appears to have threatened to hire a Russian hit squad to eliminate his opponent in the primary… hmmm…
\n", "date_published": "2021-06-18T03:02:24-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/06/18/for-the-people.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson","history","voting rights","joe manchin","filibuster"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/06/14/clash-of-world.html", "title": "20210614.03 Clash of World Orders", "content_html": "_ The G7 leaders offered a visible show of solidarity, with leaders talking and laughing together. Its statement repeated U.S. President Joe Biden’s slogan that we will “build back better,” and it painted a world that addresses climate change, prevents the exploitation of labor, demands gender equality, and protects human rights._1
\n… a world (in which humans) address climate change, prevent human exploitation, demand gender equality and protect human rights… these are good things, things every human should want, but power dynamics being what they are, autocracies are still a viable alternative… one could argue, an emerging dominant alternative… it is hard to imaging these things prevailing under autocratic leadership…
\nHeather Cox Richardson: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/june-13-2021?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&utm_source=copy ↩︎
\n… her daily brief is depressing… one can decide whether to have a good or bad day based on reading her brief for the day… today, it is mostly about Republican refusal to compromise on anything, or, conduct an adequate investigation of the January 6 insurrection…
\n", "date_published": "2021-06-09T03:01:41-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/06/09/heather-cox-richardson.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/06/08/first-thoughts.html", "title": "01 First Thoughts", "content_html": "… ordered C a book and gift card for their birthday, happy birthday C!…
\n… we leave for Block Island today… i am looking forward to R&R… a glance at the weather indicates it will be much cooler when we get there… one would think that being semi-retired the R&R is redundant, but changing environment and having a different attitude about what needs doing during the day is significant…
\n… trying to make inroads into community on micro.blog, slow going, but signs i might be gaining traction… replies to posts would be the true sign, haven’t had any of those yet…
\n… Heather Cox Richardson trying to hold on to hope that Senator Joe Manchin will agree to something that moves voting rights legislation forward, even if a less ambitious reform… he apparently believes that the For The People Act is too partisan… the obvious elephant in the room is the Republican elephant which is busy enacting partisan voting rights legislation across the country… i am beginning to wonder if we are in that pivotal moment when democracy gets lost and it is authoritarian oligarchs from here on out… at present, the only firewall will be the determination of voters to overcome the barriers… while things feel so much better under the Biden/Harris administration, there is plenty of reason to be alarmed and concerned… hopefully, HCR is right about Manchin…
\n", "date_published": "2021-06-08T01:57:33-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/06/08/first-thoughts.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson"] }, { "id": "http://mbkriegh.micro.blog/2021/05/25/heather-cox-richardson.html", "title": "02 Heather Cox Richardson", "content_html": "… Letters from an American, May 24.2021
\n… we learn about Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, and the shocking abduction of Roman Protasevich and Sofia Sapega (his girlfriend) by forcing the commercial airliner they were on down when it crossed Belarus airspace… Europe and the US are protesting in strong terms, but the question is whether anything meaningful can be done… can the journalist and his girlfriend be saved?…
\nAnne Applebaum of The Atlantic, an authoritative scholar of authoritarianism, notes that autocrats are watching to see how the West reacts, since they, too, would like to be able to control their dissident communities in exile, showing them: “You are not safe. You are never safe. Not even if you live in a democracy; not even if you have political asylum; not even if you are sitting on a commercial plane, thousands of feet above the ground.”1
\nHeather Cox Richardson, Anne Applebaum: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/may-24-2021 ↩︎
\n… still waking up… taking seconds to connect the thought of doing to actually doing it…
\n… began to rearrange my photography website… not sure i like what i did but will keep going until it makes sense…
\n… dogs restless, got me up early… Fiona smelled something outside in the back yard i think… i finally got out of bed at 3:30…
\n… looking at the weather, there is very little rain in the forecast… my next thought is how expensive watering the garden is…
\n… Heather Cox Richardson wrote about the Republican refusal to get behind a bi-partisan commission to figure out what happened on January 6, 2021… the thinking is that some of them will have to testify to things they would rather not testify to…
\n… the noose is closing in on 45… the NYS AG announced that the investigation is now into criminal wrong doing, suggesting that there are some smoking guns…
\n", "date_published": "2021-05-20T01:19:35-07:00", "url": "https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/2021/05/20/first-thoughts.html", "tags": ["politics","heather cox richardson"] } ] }