Still Not Convinced It's A Cult?

Minions Organizers wheel out golden statue of Trump for CPAC. I honestly thought this was The Onion when I first saw it, but it's real.  

Sad.

Press Release

A press release from Fair Fight, the voting rights organization founded by Stacey Abrams:

Today, Georgia Republicans once again showed their contempt for voters as two of the worst voter suppression bills since Reconstruction continued to move quickly through the state legislature: SB 241 and HB 531.

SB 241 would end no-excuse mail voting, implement new ID requirements, and add witness requirements for mail voters- in essence, creating one of the most restrictive absentee voting laws in the entire country and resulting in some of the worst voter suppression since Jim Crow.

Meanwhile, HB 531 was also rushed out of committee today in a desperate attempt to force the legislation onto the floor before Crossover Day. The bill would restrict dropbox access, add new ID requirements for mail voting, and restrict weekend voting among other provisions, all of which demonstrate just how unrelenting the GOP-led Georgia legislature is in their attacks on voting rights.

Not only are these ID and witness restrictions suppressive and unnecessary, but they are also outwardly discriminatory, and would have a disparate impact on Black and other minority voters across our state, as well as older voters and voters in single-person households. These proposals would erect a juggernaut of barricades to voting access, reviving Georgia’s dark history of voter suppression and racism as state policy.

“Once again, GOP legislators in Georgia today showed the clear and urgent need for federal action to safeguard voting rights and pass HR 1 and HR 4 to protect voters from racist and malicious voter suppression,” said Fair Fight CEO Lauren Groh-Wargo. “SB 241 and HB 531 are two of the most restrictive absentee voting policies in the country. These bills are nothing less than a direct attack on voting rights in GA, framed by far-right conspiracies and disinformation that undermines our democracy and takes voting rights in Georgia back to the days of Jim Crow.”

SB 241 and HB 531 are assaults on democracy that constitute some of the worst attacks on voting rights since Reconstruction. Their progress today again shows just how critical it is that Congress pass HR 1 and HR 4 to protect voters and safeguard our democracy.

Just as predicted, those Georgia Republicans who won so much praise for standing up to Trump and asserting the  integrity of the Georgia vote are now busy passing restrictive new voter suppression laws.

 

Anniversary

Speaking of past shows, my dear friend L. reminded me that it was exactly one year ago today that I saw my last live music show before the covids shut everything down.  

On Saturday, February 22, 2020, the up-and-coming Atlanta singer Mattiel performed a sold-out show at The Earl.  2020 was going to be Mattiel's big, breakout year - a nationwide tour, a debut album, and good promotion were all behind her.  She has a big, Amy Winehouse-style voice and several television shows had already used her songs in their soundtracks.  She was poised to be a star, or at least as big a star as an indie rock singer was allowed in 2020. And then the covids derailed her tour plans, which preempted her appearances on late-night talk shows, which slowed record sales and radio play and soundtrack royalties. She's young and may still have the energy to get back on the horse after this has all passed, but she has a lot of momentum to recover.  But we know Mattiel, if anything, is pretty agile on horseback.

Leaving the show that night, I had no clue it wouldn't be at another for at least a year - I even had tickets to shows in March and April.  And who knows, it may have been my last show ever - some say it may be another 6 months to a year before we return to live music in clubs, and who knows if I've got that much time left?  Impermanence is swift.

You know that experience when you go to take a sip of your drink and you find out the glass is already empty?  You're pissed because you didn't have that "last-sip" experience - you didn't savor that last sip, holding it in your mouth for an extra second or two, appreciating the flavor.  Well, I didn't have the "last-sip" experience of live music that night; I blithely walked out of The Earl thinking I'll be back for another show soon.  I didn't savor the taste.

We should live all our life in that "last-sip" state, appreciating everything in the moment as if it were our last, because it could be.

Lucier

Inspired by watching the live online Band On A Can Marathon today, including performance of a new piece by experimental composer Alvin Lucier, I'm reposting this clip of a Lucier performance at the Knoxville Museum of Art from Big Ears 2019.

Black History

On September 4, 1957, 15-year-old Dorothy Counts was the black student enrolled at Harry Harding High School in Charlotte, North Carolina.  I was three years old at that time.

Much is made of the heroes of black history, the Malcolm X's and the Martin Luther Kings, and rightly so.  But what's often forgotten is the bravery and grace under pressure of the hundreds of others in the front line of the battle for equality, the sit-in protesters at lunch counters, the crowds of civil-rights marchers, the students entering segregated schools. Courageous people like the teenage Dorothy.

Dorothy was dropped off at Harding High on her first day of school, a Thursday, by her father. As she got out of the car to head down the hill, her father told her, "Hold your head high. You are inferior to no one."

There were roughly 200 to 300 people in the crowd, mostly students. The harassment started when the wife of an officer of the White Citizens Council urged the boys to "keep her out" and at the same time, implored the girls to "Spit on her, girls, spit on her." 

Accompanied by a family friend, Dorothy walked by without reacting, but later told the press that many people threw rocks at her—most of which landed in front of her feet—and that students formed walls but parted ways at the last instant to allow her to walk past. 

After entering the building, she went into the auditorium to sit with her class. She was met there with the same harassment that occurred outside the school building, constantly hearing racial slurs shouted to her. She said that no adults assisted or protected her during this time. 

After going to her homeroom to receive her books and schedule, she was ignored. After the school day ended, her parents asked if she wanted to continue going to Harding High, and Dorothy said that she wanted to go back because she hoped that after the students got to know her, things there would improve.

Dorothy fell ill the following day. With a fever and aching throat, she stayed home from school that Friday, but returned on Monday. There wasn't a crowd outside of the building, but students and faculty were shocked by her return and proceeded to harass her. While in class, she was placed at the back of the room and was ignored by her teacher. 

During lunch one day, a group of boys circled her and spat in her food. After that experience, Dorothy asked her parents to pick her up during her lunch period so that she could eat.

Eventually, she met another new student who was part of her homeroom class. The young girl talked to Dorothy about being new to Charlotte and the school. When she returned home, she told her parents that she felt better because she had made a friend and had someone to whom she could talk.  The next day, however, Dorothy saw the young girl in the hallway but the young girl just hung her head and proceeded to ignore her. 

A blackboard eraser was thrown at her one day and struck her on the back of her head. As she proceeded to go outside to meet her oldest brother for lunch, she saw a crowd surrounding the family car. The back windows were shattered. Dorothy said this was the first time she was afraid, because now her family was being attacked.

Dorothy told her family what had happened and her father called the superintendent and the police department.  The superintendent told the family he was not aware of what was happening at Harding High, and the police chief said they could not guarantee Dorothy's protection. After that conversation, her father decided to take her out of the school.

James Baldwin recalled seeing photos of Dorothy at Harding High and wrote, "It made me furious and filled me with both hatred and pity and it made me ashamed - One of us should have been there with her."

Dorothy is still alive at the age of 78.  She's younger than either Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders to give you some idea of how recent these activities were.

Ted Cruz (R-Dumbass) left his white poodle, named Snowflake, behind in the family’s freezing home in Houston to fly down to Cancun, Mexico.

Cruelty to animals to me is now the worst of Cruz’ many, many sins.

Current Events

What to talk about today? More about Texas, still suffering and still powerless in the cold?  This week, Senator Ted Cruz (the "Walmart Wolverine") was caught flying with his family down to Cancun while his constituents were literally freezing to death and starving, without clean water or sanitation.  He blamed the idea on his daughters, age 10 and 12, who said they thought it was a good idea to leave the country during an emergency, not to mention a covid pandemic, and spend time at the beach, and when that happens what can you do but go along, amirite?

Cruz apparently didn't want his legacy to be the treacherous senator who contributed to a violent coup attempt by perpetuating The Big Lie by tring to overturn the results of the Electoral College in the Senate.  He apparently decided he didn't want to be remembered for slavish, fawning obedience to the former so-called "president" after Trump had said his wife was ugly and that his father was a conspirator in the JFK assassination.  He apparently decided that it looked better to be remembered as the senator who ran to sunny Cancun while his constituents were in a life-or-death emergency and then blamed the error in judgement on his preteen daughters.  Nice guy.  Hey, Texas, I hate to break it to you, but Senator Ted Cruz doesn't give two shits about you. Feel free to pass the message on to his wife and padre.  

But let's not talk about that.  Let's talk about right here in Georgia, fresh off our blue-state electoral victories and flush with satisfaction after our Republican leadership stood up to Trump and denied The Big Lie, asserting our election was indeed free and fair.  Well, now that we're past that, the same Republican leadership is already trying to suppress the next vote, making it harder to vote by mail in the future here.  A bill advancing through the state legislature will require that an absentee voter be over 75 years of age, have a physical disability, or to be out of town.  Absentee balloting has been available to anyone who wanted it for 16 years now without incident or problems.  But QAnon-friendly, MAGA Republicans feel it's now time to turn back the calendar 

Personally, I have no problem voting in person.  I voted by mail in the Georgia primary, the General Election, and the Senate runoff because of the covids, but now that I'm vaccinated, I have no problem  going to my local polling place and voting in person. But we're not all in the same boat.  There are many Georgians who don't happen to be retired, who don't get time off work to vote, and who are working two (or more) jobs just to make ends meet   Many of them are poor, many of them are minorities.  Republicans don't want many of them voting, so they're using The Big Lie ("millions of fraudulent mail-in votes!") as an excuse to suppress their vote.

A luta continua.

Texas

People in the State of Texas are suffering greatly due to days of sub-freezing temperatures, snow and failure of the power grid.

The effects of climate change can be brutal and fierce.  The effects are more than just being slightly warmer in the winter or summers that last a little bit longer.  A late-autumn hurricane that roared through Atlanta, Georgia, some 300 miles from the Gulf, dropped a tree on my house that caused so much damage that even today, 3½ months later, workers are literally still replacing damaged roofing right now even as I write this.

But more than merely being colder that they're accustomed to, the people of Texas are suffering multiple days of lost power, so they can't heat their homes or cook their food.  Since they can't heat their homes, pipes are freezing and bursting.  Sewage is backing up, natural gas is freezing in pipelines, delivery trucks can't restock grocery stores and supermarkets, and the entire supply chain is disrupted. It's a cascading series of catastrophes - one triggering the next - and it may take them months to fully recover.  Maybe just in time for hurricane season.

Imagine being Texas Governor Greg Abbott.  You and your Washington representatives have been denying the science of climate change for years now, and as if the increase in hurricane frequency and intensity wasn't enough proof, you've just become the poster child for human-induced climate change.  You so despise the federal government, and are so enamored of corporate profits, that you unplugged yourself from the national power grid and let energy corporations and the oil companies run their little, independent fiefdoms of separate local and regional power grids. 

And now your citizens are literally freezing to death (people have reportedly taken to burning their furniture to keep warm after using all other available fuels).  Some are starving and soon opportunistic diseases will start kicking in (also, remember we're still in the middle of a coronavirus pandemic).

So what do you as Greg Abbott do? Why, of course - blame it all of New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Green New Deal.  Surely, somehow those dastardly dingbat Democrats must be responsible for all this.  "Solar power and wind turbines don't work in the cold,"  conservative Texans complain, ignoring the fact that their problems are due to an outdated and deregulated grid of natural gas pipelines.  And also, for the record, both do work in the cold.

Abbott brought this upon himself, and if Texas doesn't turn blue from the freezing cold, they'll turn blue politically and vote his ass out of office as soon as possible.  Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, too, as well as congressional embarrassments Louie Gohmert and Dead-Eye Dan Crenshaw.

Sirens Off the Georgia Coast, February 16, 2021

Evening Sky Over Georgia, February 15, 2021

Happy Valentine’s Day

 

Shame!

These are historic times.  In addition to a pandemic of historic proportions, the dates of this year - Jan. 6, Jan. 13, Feb. 13 - will be remembered in the history books.  These are the times and this is the record of the times.

Today, the Senate voted to acquit the former so-called "president" Trump on the impeachment charges stemming from the violent and deadly insurrection he inspired on January 6.   Everybody knew the trial was ultimately going to end in an acquittal but as the House impeachment managers built their case over two days earlier this week, the depth of Trump's treachery and the certainty of his responsibility became so overwhelming, it was easy to forget that the Republicans just don't care.

As the case evolved over the week, it became impossible to ignore the treasonous nature of the insurrection - Trump, angry and in disbelief that he lost the election, spent over two months endlessly repeating lies about "massive voter fraud" and working his base up into a frenzy.  Finally, as the Senate was performing their constitutional and basically ceremonial certification of the election, Trump told a crowd he had gathered at the White House to be ready to "fight like hell" or they "won't have a country any more.," and directed them to march to the Capitol and make themselves heard.  

They did, breaking into the Capitol, looting and trashing offices, and temporarily disrupting the certification.  Five people died in the insurrection, and many more were wounded and/or traumatized. Nevertheless, the Senate reconvened that same day to complete the certification and declared Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 election.

For the first time in American history, there was not a "peaceful transfer of power."

To be sure, although a few die-hard Republican Senators probably actually believe that Trump wasn't guilty of the charges, most can't deny his responsibility.  Whether or not he was guilty as charged was hardly an issue for his defense.  His attorneys, knowing the outcome was a sure thing anyway, just needed to give the Republicans some semblance of an excuse to vote to acquit him, and they found one - even though Trump was still in office at the time he was impeached on Jan. 6, then-Majority Leader Moscow Mitch McConnell wouldn't call the Senate back from recess and act on the impeachment until after the Inauguration, so by the time of his trial, Trump was no longer the acting president. The Republicans decided it was unconstitutional to try a private citizen for impeachment, and that was enough for them to vote to acquit.

Not that they necessarily believed the Constitutional argument either.  The first full day of the prosecution laid out in clear scholarly, legal, and political terms the constitutionality of the case, and the Senate had even voted on this issue previously, with a narrow majority approving the process.

The truth of the matter is no Republican congressman, Senate or House, wants to be seen even appearing to oppose Trump and upsetting his fanatical base followers.  So deep is the cult of personality, that even Trump's Vice President, the ever-loyal Mike Pence, was facing calls of "Traitor!" and threats of lynching because he didn't illegally declare Trump the victor at the Senate certification ceremony - something he wasn't in a position to do legally or procedurally, even if he had wanted.  But facts don't matter to the Trump base - you're either 101% unflinchingly loyal to their idol, or you're an enemy of the people and better be looking back over your shoulder.

The Senators did not want to go down the path of Mike Pence, or earlier this month, Liz Chaney, and needed some excuse not to vote their conscience on this matter.   Trump's attorneys said, despite all the previous testimony and the Senate's own vote, that the impeachment was unconstitutional and that's all the protective covering they needed to vote to acquit.

They are shameful cowards all.  I can't wait to see them reap the karmic consequences of their actions, and only regret that I won't live long enough to see all of this impugned in the history books of the future.

Meanwhile, In Washington . . .

 

I Wonder Who Lights the Candles

 

Me Watching the Senate Impeachment Trial

 

Trial By Partisanship

Today was the first day of Trump's second impeachment trial, and being a ROM with nothing but time on his hands, I say around and watched it all.  That's four hours of my life I'm never going to get back.  A day wasted.

The House impeachment managers spoke first.   They provided a gripping, detailed account of the events of the January 6 insurrection and Trump's role in it.  Two attorney congressmen gave detailed but easily comprehensible arguments on the constitutionality of the trial.  The opening speaker then gave an emotional account of his own experience that bloody day    It was persuasive stuff and they all had read their talking-points memo and said the phrase "No January exception" enough times that it may have sunk in.

Then Trump's defense team spoke.  The first attorney mumbled and digressed and never seemed to get to a point - if he ever had one to begin with.  He was like a senator back when filibusters meant you had to actually get up and talk to take up time, just rambling on and on.  Th next attorney tried at first to fire up the base, yelling that this was all nothing but a nefarious scheme by the dirty dingbat Democrats to besmirch a fine man, but then even he went off the rails and gave some incomprehensible legal argument in a staccato, shouting voice.  But no one was listening to what he was saying, because all anyone could think about was the weird way he kept drinking bottled water, putting one hand on the top of his head while he drank from the bottle with the other hand.   Neither attorney, it should be noted, ever suggested that Trump hadn't in fact done what the Democrats had just said he did - their only point was that he shouldn't be held accountable for it.

But at the end of the day, none of that mattered.  The Senate voted and decided mostly (but not entirely) along party lines that the trial was indeed constitutional and that they'd hear arguments tomorrow.  I firmly believe that no Republican who voted against the constitutionality of the trial really believed that, and that few really even understood the case.  They were simply afraid of the MAGA base and didn't want to be on record voting against Trump - look how badly that's turning out for Liz Cheney. Thy voted to save their own thin political skin, not with their conscience or to show leadership.  They were sheep, scared of their own constituencies. 

I really have to examine my life-style choices and what I want to do with myself before I decide if I want to watch the trial again tomorrow or not.

It's Impeachment Trial Eve!

\

 

The Samskara Papers, Part 4

I've been thinking about and meditating on my theories of consciousness, samskara, mental maps, and schema for at least eight years now.  Posts to his blog about these topics are dated as early as July 2012, when I first came across writing that suggested to me that samskara and schema were two different terms that basically describe different aspects of the same thing.  Since then, I've come across writing and ideas by such diverse minds as writer and translator Red Pine, neurologist Dr. V.S. Ramachandran, and psychologist/philosopher Erich Fromm, that further guided my thoughts and illuminated my inquiries.  

Today, while randomly scrolling over my phone, I came across an article written by Princeton neurologist Michael Graziano about his attention schema theory, or AST, on the origin of consciousness.  His earliest publications on this matter are dated 2011, so the good Doctor Graziano and I were both cogitating on this matter at the same time.

As I literally just came across his AST theory today, I won't pretend that I fully understand it yet or even partially understand it, except in the most superficial, preliminary way.  All I've read so far are one article in The Atlantic by Dr. Graziano and the Wikipedia entry on AST.  But I can summarize what I think it means, colored, of course, by my own thoughts and preconceptions:

• We're constantly bombarded at any second by more sensory input that we can possibly consider.  But our mind filters out all those sights, sounds, and sensations and focuses instead on those things that we fear might cause us harm or that we hope might by useful or pleasurable.  But the vast majority of the input is simply ignored.  For example, I don't have to think about the sound of my own breath unless, of course, it sounds "off" to me (why am I wheezing?).  It's simply not possible to think about every sound that reaches our ears, everything in our field of sight, and so on all the time.


• Our minds have created subconscious "filters" to sort out the sensory impressions that we can ignore to focus instead on the ones that require our attention.  Some of those filters are instinctive and others we've learned in life.  I've learned to ignore the sound of the HVAC system in the house, and I've learned to pay close attention to sounds of possible intruders in the night (not that I've had any intruders, but I have awakened to many "false alarms").  The tree recently falling on my house has made me hyper-aware of sounds on my roof, and unfortunately now I'm hyper-aware of the sounds of raindrops tapping on the roof.  It might be a while before my mind can "unlearn" being concerned about sounds from the rooftops and i can sleep again on a rainy right.


• Those filters are based on mental models, schema if you will, of the world around us, and as our experiences in life change, so do our models and so does our filters based on those models.


• We also have models of our bodies and how they move us through the world.  I can look at a stream and decide if I can step across it, of if it will require a running jump to cross, of if it's impossible to cross dry shod.  That's a model.  But there's also subconscious models.  When we're out walking, we don't have to consciously think about each step, or how far each step will move us forward through the external world.  We can think about it if we choose to, and we do think about it when we encounter something - a stairstep, say, or a log across our path - that requires us to deliberately calculate our move.  But even complex movements can be selected subconsciously - just watch an athlete for an example.  A basketball player, runs, jumps, throws a ball, flicks a pass behind his back, and fakes a move in the opposite direction of his actual path without conscious thought about it.  If he did have to think about each and every motion, he'd get bogged down in thought and probably couldn't play, or at lest couldn't play well, at all.


• Finally, we also have filters and mental models of our own thoughts.  We don't have to think about why - or even if - we're listening to bird sounds, or noticing an approaching stranger more than we're noticing a lamp post, or thinking about what to make for dinner tonight. We don't have to pay attention to everything we're paying attention to.  The filters for our thoughts and our attentions are based on models, schema, just like the filters for our senses.  This is "attention schema."


• Dr. Graziano's theory, if I understand it correctly, holds that we can pay attention to our attention schema if we so choose, and when we do we become aware that something's going on inside of our mind - something that seemingly is working separately from the rest of the world.  The "something" is intensely personal and uniquely ours, seemingly independent of anything in the outside world, so we identify with it and consider it to be, in fact, ourselves - the Ego-Self as they say in Buddhism, the self that is not others.

I can almost hear Dr. G or those familiar with his work groaning right now over how wrong I've got it - I can almost hear myself groaning in the future when I re-read this and realize how off-base I was.

But regardless, I find it fascinating to discover someone who's been on the same path of inquiry as I have, and sees based on entirely different evidence than mine that consciousness seems to be intricately linked to schema.

I really have nothing to say today, but I'm way too OCD to break a three-year streak of daily posting and not put up something.

Let Us Now Consider the Lowly Opossum

 

A Disgrace to the State of Georgia

This afternoon, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 230 to 199 to strip outspoken and controversial Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments, effectively giving her nothing to do in Congress.  The vote went along party lines with only 11 Republicans voting for her removal.  

I feel ambivalent about this.  On the one hand, I find her views deplorable - she has suggested that the Parkland and Stoneham school shooting were staged events and that no one really died, that 9/11, or at least the attack on the Pentagon that day, was similarly fake, and that (and I swear I'm not making this up) California wildfires were started by lasers in outer space controlled by the Jewish  Rothschild family.

On the other hand, I'm also a First Amendment, ACLU-style progressive, and I feel anyone has a right to express their views, however deplorable or offensive, as long as they aren't physically hurting anyone.  I also believe that the people of northwest Georgia (her district) have the right to freely elect the representative they want.  If I protest when Texas sues to overturn the results of Georgia's presidential election because they apparently feel like we picked the "wrong" candidate, and if I protest when Ted Cruz objects to Georgia's electoral votes being counted in the Senate, then it would be hypocritical not to object to House Democrats trying to unseat a freely elected official, even if I disagree with her.  If Greene were removed from her committees simply because others found her opinions objectionable, or that the people of northwest Georgia somehow voted "wrong," then that's a very dangerous path to start going down.

But it does go deeper than that.  She also reportedly advocated for, or at least endorsed, violence against other Congressional members.  That goes beyond mere holding of unpopular opinions.  Specifically, she reportedly "liked" a Facebook post that said the best way to remove House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi from office would be to put a bullet in her head.

Well, that's different, but still, what exactly does it mean to "like" a post?  Does it necessarily mean that you approve of everything it says, hold that opinion as your own, and will stand by it for years to come? I don't mean to defend Greene, but if that's what a "like" means, a lot of us are in some pretty big trouble.   

Could a "like" not mean that you understand the person's anger and rage, and want to let them know they're being heard? Could it mean that you just got swept up in the emotion of the moment, and made a boneheaded click?  Or as a political figure, could it mean that you want that person's attention, that you think that person might potentially vote for you, and you want to get on their radar screen?

The latter is similar to the controversy when some politician or another is photographed with someone objectionable.  Most politicians pose for pictures with innumerable people in order to win support - it's part of campaigning, just like the proverbial kissing babies.  Elizabeth Warren, who I strongly approve of, famously stayed as late as necessary after her campaign appearances until everyone who wanted a selfie with her got one.  If you went through all of those pictures, could one of them have a criminal record?  Could one have been a white supremacist? Or a pedophile?  If so, does that mean that Warren approved their views or actions or whatever?

Of course nor.  And if you scrolled through the browsing history of every member of Congress and cataloged all of their Facebook "likes," don't you think you'd find some thing, maybe not as bad as Greene's choice but still highly objectionable, on nearly every representative?

God damn it, I hate that I'm defending her! I find her reprehensible and repugnant - she's an asshole - but I think Congress made a mistake this time.

Worse yet, this will only feed into that  paranoid, right-wing persecution complex.  "They want to silence me," she's already claimed.  That only builds up the support among her voters and all but reassures her a second term. Just what we didn't need . . . 

It might have been better to just ignore her, marginalize her words and actions by condensation, like everyone did with her recent motion to impeach Joe Biden (I don't even know what the charges are).  Everyone was like, "Oh, nice publicity stunt.  Meanwhile . . . " and went back to the grown-up world of governing.  That kind of action would have rendered her moot in no time at all.

One last point - there are members of Congress who, not without good reason, feared for their lives and safety with her in their midst.  One congresswoman, Cori Bush of Missouri, had to request that her office be moved away from Greene's because she and her staff were harassing and intimidating Bush and her staff (I told you Greene was an asshole).  She's a rabid gun enthusiast and has refused to go through the required metal detectors to enter Congress.  Given her prior "likes" of posts about bullets in congressional heads and given the fact that she likely is armed, it's not unreasonable to be concerned.

So here's my final question - how does she get into Congress if she won't submit to a metal detector?  Back in the day, I couldn't get into some concerts without passing through a metal detector.  No one gets very far in an airport with getting scanned.  Why doesn't Capitol security just do its job, and not let anyone in who hasn't first been screened?

Groundhog Day

Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique was first published on February 19, 1963.  Thirty years later, the world premier of the movie Groundhog Day was on February 12, 1993.  Instead of Presidents' Day, we should commemorate the publication of the book and the premiere of the movie with a combined holiday on the second Monday of each February. That would also put it conveniently near Valentine's Day and make that Hallmark holiday a little more meaningful - maybe we should combine all three into "Feminine Groundhog Valentine Day."

Home Improvement

Late last week, they finally completed my new roof.  I had put a new roof on last March, just before the coronavirus pandemic sent everything into a lockdown, paying the cost out of my own pocket.  But then a big tree fell on my house during Hurricane Zeta late last October.  After much fussing and negotiating with contractors and the insurance company, they finally started reframing the roof, replacing broken beams and rafters, and then late last week, the shinglers came by and completed the roof. They did a good job.

What remains to be done is completing the siding, facings, and soffits, and then putting up new gutters. Brickwork needs to be repaired on one wall in the back of the house and the rear (kitchen) door needs replacing.  Meanwhile, inside the house, cracked ceilings in several rooms need to be replaced.

They were scheduled to come by and vacuum out all of the blow-in insulation in my attic tomorrow to reduce the mess when they take the drywall down on my ceilings.  It's more than a little ironic that they're finally getting around to that step now on what is probably the coldest week of this winter.  The lead contractor assured me that I'd noticed the difference, and that without any insulation in the attic my furnace would run 24/7 and the house would still feel noticeably cold.  

But worst of all, they had no scheduled plans on when they were going to come back and actually drop the ceilings.  They certainly had no plans for doing the work this week.  I could have been shivering inside an uninsulated house for days or even weeks.   In fact, they weren't even sure of the schedule for completing all of the remaining exterior work.  We had a long talk on the telephone this afternoon, and the longer we talked the more I became convinced that they had no real schedule or strategic plan on when or how they were going to complete this job.

As a former Project Manager, I found this unacceptable.

I argued that we shouldn't be removing the insulation until immediately before we were scheduled to replace the ceilings, and that in the meantime we should be completing the exterior work.  We postponed the vacuuming of the insulation until we know when we're going to replace the ceilings, and I told them that's a lower priority to me than completing the exterior work.  

The contractors seemed put off that their customer, instead of being a complaint, passive receptor of their plans (such as they were), was actually taking the lead on project scheduling, but in the absence of any strategic planning, someone had to take a lead.  After all, this is my home, and a man's home is his castle.