In news we should have heard or read long, long ago, Twitter has banned The Lame Duck permanently. His followers and/or minions will no longer be able to hang on his every word, capitalized or not. He will have to find new means of venting, which I guess might not be a good thing. Can he be encouraged just to play golf for the next 12 days? Golf may be why he is now supposedly heading to Mar-a-Lago rather than Scotland on January 19. January is not golf season in Scotland even if you own the course.
The Democrats in the House of Representatives are still talking about impeaching The Lame Duck on Monday. I assume that they would dispense with hearings such as they heard the first time The Duck was impeached and forward articles of impeachment to the Senate as quickly as they can. Moscow Mitch McConnell has said, however, that the Senate's schedule would not allow for a trial before the Inauguration. Could they even hold a trial once The Lame Duck is no longer President?The Lame Duck's remaining as President until Inauguration Day frightens me, as do thoughts of what havoc his minions might try to wreak in conjunction with the Inauguration. I seriously hope someone, anyone can keep him from pushing the wrong buttons.
One priority for the Senate before the Inauguration should be confirming some of Uncle Joe's Cabinet picks. I'd never really thought about it, but most Presidents have several Cabinet members confirmed and ready to go on Inauguration Day. I think Uncle Joe has now named all of his choices. I would say that State, Defense, and Justice would be the most important to have confirmed as early as possible, with Health and Human Services following closely given the pandemic.
Moving away from politics for now, 2020 was not a good year in terms of climate-driven catastrophe in the US. There were 22 major disasters, a major disaster being defined as one causing $1 billion or more in damages. Those 22 major disasters caused at least 262 deaths and more than $95 billion in damages. The previous record was 16 major disasters.
Lots of numbers in that last paragraph. I like numbers, and have been called a data nerd. Speaking of data, The Professor and I cheered out loud last night seeing a clip in which Dr. Fauci said, "The data indicate ..." It probably dates me, but I grew up with "data" as the plural of "datum" and still cringe when I hear "data" used as a singular noun.
I'm not sure I'd want to own stock in Boeing right now. A Boeing 737--not a 737-Max--went down in the sea off Jakarta, Indonesia only minutes after takeoff. Debris has been spotted though it has not been confirmed as having come from the plane. There were also reports of an explosion heard about the time to plan went down. As The Professor just noted, Boeing has its fingers crossed that terrorism rather than mechanics was the cause of the accident.
Probably because I ordered bulbs this fall, I received the Prairie Moon Nursery catalog yesterday. Prairie Moon specializes in "native seeds and plants--wildflowers and grasses for restoration and gardening." Perusing the contents of said catalog, I discovered a plant named Hairy Beardtongue. Its Latin name is penstemon hirsutus. Hairy Beardtongue sounds like a Tolkien character or someone in a Dungeons and Dragons game. If I could draw decently, I'd see what I could make Hairy Beardtongue look like.
No unpacking and putting away today, but I did make bread and work on a small prototype of my pandemic quilt. It's going to be sufficiently detailed that I want to make mistakes now so that I will know how to avoid them when I start on the real thing. I made several of them today and hope to make more when next I work on it. Much as I prefer somewhat "liberated" designs in which the goal can be less than perfect, this is going to require more attention to detail than I am used to paying.
I do like Hairy Beardtongue as a character name.
1 comment:
It's not native here but is good to grow for its drought tolerance.
You can currently play golf in Scotland but not in England, don't ask me why because there is no sense in it. I suspect that laddo was told just how unwelcome he would be and the penalties he would face here for being a quarantine breaker. Everything is shut, no amount of foot stomping will open it and yes, it is cold. We have people being penalised for travelling 7 miles from home (although there was backtracking on that later) so a massively publicised transatlantic flight for the purposes of golf would be really badly timed. If the rules don't apply to those with privilege then why do they apply to me? That's the start of protests and I'd like to get through this without rioting.
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