Fourth Day of the Zenith, 24th Day of Spring, 525 M.E. (Atlas): Scenes from a revolution - Hands Off! protests erupted across the country yesterday, including demonstrations here in Atlanta (pictures from various social media feeds).

Of course, it wasn't all Atlanta. Here's Boston:

Protests weren't limited to Atlanta and Boston. According to the press (or what's left of the press), there were over 1,000 similar events across the United Snakes, from Miami to Seattle, and San Diego to Bangor. There were at least four demonstrations in Alaska alone and I'm sure there were events in Hawai'i. There were event protests in Longon, Paris, Berlin, and elsewhere. Here's New York and D.C.: 

I'm embarrassed to admit I did not take part in any of the protests, not even here in Atlanta. Excuses, excuses: I find it hard to do anything before noon, even showing up in Piedmont Park to protest the Orange One. My car is still in the shop, and I didn't want to park the loaner car I'm driving somewhere where it might get vandalized (it's not  Tesla, but still). Overall, it seems like I've been on a streak of bad luck lately, and it felt like I'd be tempting the fates to engage in some civil disobedience/good trouble, however good the cause. So here's my part - publicizing the good actions of my fellow citizens in support of our common cause.

Third Day of the Zenith, 23rd of Spring, 525 M.E. (Helios): At long last, the amerikan people are rising up in protest against the man deporting our immigrants, gutting our government, destroying our economy, and upending our defensive strategic alliances.  

This is Boston (not L.A.), but similar protests are happening here in Atlanta, in D.C., in Austin, Texas, and all across the country. 

It's time for regime change. We're not even 100 days into this failed presidency yet, but it's abundantly clear that we're not on a sustainable course. Thank you to all who turned out and protested, and let's keep this going until our voices can't be ignored. 

Second Day of the Zenith, 22nd of Spring, 525 M.E. (Electra): OMG, just look at today's headlines:

"TRUMP TARIFFS SEND MARKETS REELING

S&P 500 Down Over 10% in 2 Days as Trump Upends the Global Order

• Trump’s tariffs are rattling Meta
• Airline stocks get hammered as investors worry about travel demand" (The New York Times)

"Stock-market rout continues as investors rattled by Trump tariffs; Slumps on S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq cap dismal day for global indices but US president doubles down on tariff plan" (The Guardian)

"Stocks battered by sell-off over escalating trade war, Dow plunged as investors fear tit-for-tat tariffs could sink the US and global economies into a recession

• Powell: Trump’s tariffs were far larger than expected
• Nintendo postpones Switch 2 preorders in US because of tariffs" (CNN)

"Global stocks sink in second day of market turmoil over Trump tariffs" (BBC)

"Wall Street nosedives at close, Nasdaq ends in bear market, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said uncertainty is high, U.S. stocks extended already deep losses on his remarks

• Stocks slump again after China fires back in trade war with tariffs on US goods
• Nowhere to hide: Trump tariffs leave trading partners cornered
• After tariff shock, Trump may weaponise finance against allies" (Reuters)

And then there's Fox News, whose headlines today read "Pro-life activist assaulted, bloodied during street interview about abortion. 

• Federal judge directs Trump admin to return Maryland man deported to El Salvador prison
• Kamala Harris’ reaction to Trump’s landslide victory revealed in bombshell book" 

Finally, in the fourth headline below the lede: "Long-suffering American industry embraces tariffs: Trump ‘threw us a lifeline.’"

 

Day of the Zenith, 21st of Spring, 525 M.E. (Deneb): And just like that, we're a fundamentally diminished nation. 

On October 19, 2024, The Economist magazine claimed the American economy was “the envy of the world.” Today, a mere five months later, all three major Wall Street index funds are plummeting. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fund was down 4.5%, while the Dow dropped 2.7% at opening. Bloomberg calculated that around $2 trillion has been knocked off the value of the S&P 500 today, with Apple among the biggest losers. Meanwhile, the dollar hit a six-month low, going down at least 2.2% this morning compared to other major currencies.

What happened? Last night, the Orange One announced that he will impose a 10% tariff on all imports to the United States, with higher rates on specific countries and the European Union. The U.S. will subject Chinese goods to a new tariff of 34 percent, on top of other tariffs imposed since January. The E.U.’s tariff was set at 20 percent, Japan’s at 24 percent, Britain’s at 10 percent. and India’s at 26 percent. New tariffs on all automobiles made outside the United States also took effect, adding to the previous tariffs on steel, aluminum and other imports that Trump has already imposed since returning to office. He even imposed tariffs on uninhabited regions, like Australia’s Heard and McDonald Islands, which are occupied only by penguins and seals. 

Tellingly, though, he did not impose any tariffs on Russia. 

Agent Orange is calling yesterday "Liberation Day" but it's not clear who is being liberated or from what. “Never before has an hour of Presidential rhetoric cost so many people so much,” according to former Treasury secretary Lawrence Summers, who estimates the loss from the new tariff policies to be close to $30 trillion, "or $300,000 per family of four."

The White House says it is merely imposing “reciprocal tariffs,” which they claim are about half of what other countries charge on U.S. goods, although the numbers they are using are fundamentally flawed. For example, Paul Krugman points out that while Trump claims the E.U. places 39% tariffs on U.S. goods, the actual rate is less than 3% on average. 

Apparently, for each country, the White House looked up its 2024 trade deficit and then divided that deficit by the country’s exports to us. Then, to be “kind,” they offered a discount, cutting that figure in half. However, trade deficits aren't tariffs, and financial journalist James Surowiecki called the approach “extraordinary nonsense.” Japanese consumers don't buy as many American products as American consumers buy Japanese products for a wide variety of reasons, including price, quality, and need, and not just because of government sanctioned tariffs.      

The tariffs are likely to drive up prices for American consumers and manufacturers. Business groups, trade experts, economists, Democratic lawmakers, and even a few Republicans have denounced the tariffs, and even former vice president Mike Pence called them the "Trump Tariff Tax," claiming they represent "the largest peacetime tax hike in U.S. history.” 

Trump had waited until the stock market closed yesterday before he announced the new tariffs. But by noon today, the S&P 500 had tumbled more than 4 percent, echoing sharp declines in Asia and Europe as investors balked at the tariffs. 

The so-called "president" is undermining a system of global trade that has fostered international cooperation since World War II. “This is Trump saying. . . 'I am going to overturn globalization as we’ve known it,'” said CNN global economic analyst Rana Foroohar. 

“I’m hoping it doesn’t push the U.S. and the world into recession,” Foroohar added. However, JP Morgan forecasts that these policies, if sustained, will likely push the US and global economy into a recession this year. “In the short run, the effect is probably a recession," agreed economist Brad Setser of the Council on Foreign Relations, adding, "It’s going to raise the price of so many goods that can’t be made in the United States." In the long run, he said, "it’s a vision of the U.S. that is very isolated from the world.”

The Turnip finally built his fucking wall, but this time we're all trapped inside. The tariffs are likely a way to make private industry dependent on the president in the same way he has tried to make law firms and universities dependent on him. Senator Chris Murphy suggested companies “will need to pledge loyalty to Trump in order to get sanctions relief.” He warned that the "tariffs are DESIGNED to create economic hardship." Trump will then have a straight-face rationale for releasing them, business by business or industry by industry. "As he adjusts or grants relief," Murphy points out, "it’s a win-win: the economy improves and dissent disappears.”

The Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to impose tariffs. However, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act allows the president to impose tariffs if he declares a national emergency under the National Emergencies Act, which Trump has done, citing a need "to increase our competitive edge, protect our sovereignty, and strengthen our national and economic security.” 

The same law, however, also allows Congress to end such a declaration of emergency. But so far, Republicans have declined to do so. Yesterday, the Senate passed a resolution to block the tariffs on Canadian products, with four Republicans (Susan Collins, Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski, and Rand Paul) joining Democrats to pass the resolution. But Speaker Mike Johnson is unlikely to take the measure up in the House any time soon.

As I said at the top of the post, we're now a fundamentally diminished country. Our economy is in shambles, we're heading for a major recession, an autocratic despot is illegally and unconstitutionally seizing control of every aspect of government, and the agencies and government organizations intended as a financial safety net and to protect our health, food, air, and water have been gutted and decimated. 

I'm not happy with these times or these conditions.

 

The Quiet Turf, 20th Day of Spring, 525 M.E. (Castor): "Trump announces sweeping new tariffs, upending decades of US trade policy," the headline in today's The Guardian reads. Having failed in his first term to build a physical wall along the Mexican border he's now essentially building a financial wall made of tariffs isolating the United Snakes from the rest of the world.

This won't end well. An international trade system that's developed over the past five or six decades has been suddenly upended by a senile narcissist with no guardrails or capable advisors telling him not to wreck things. I can agree that some trade inequalities exist and that there's a level of manipulation in certain markets, and that these issues need to be identified and fixed, but Trump's tariffs will essentially be a "tax on everything," will mostly hurt amerikan consumers, and will trigger a recession both here and abroad.  The moron just broke the economy, and Congress, the rest of D.C., and the press are too chickenshit to say that out loud.

Leaving NATO will destroy an international military alliance that's maintained the peace for over 60 years. This won't end well, either, and it's hard to impossible to predict much less identify all of the threats that will emerge to fill the power vacuum that the collapse of NATO will create. An unintelligent move by an unintelligent man.    

As Lloyd Bridges said in the film Airplane! (1980), “Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue.”

Day of the Tower, 19th of Spring, 525 M.E. (Betelgeuse): I'm slowly returning back to so-called "normal" (whatever that is) life after a long, abnormal weekend at Big Ears. 

I was only gone for four days but I came back to more little chores and "to do" items than I was able to accomplish in one day. Good thing there's a "tomorrow."

All those miles walked over the past year sure came in handy as I walked from venue to venue in Knoxville. What once seemed strenuous was now a breeze. But I'm still not sure when I'll climb the hierarchy of needs high enough to resume my alternating-day walking and sitting schedule again.

 

Day of Mourning, 18th of Big Ears, 525 M.E. (Atlas): Today, I played rope-a-dope with that front system and severe weather between my hotel in Knoxville and my home in Atlanta. 

I didn't want to drive in a severe thunderstorm, and they were warning about the possibility of 60 mph winds, golf ball-sized hail, and possible tornado watches. The front was moving towards the east, but the weather behind it looked calm. As the highway (I-75) from K-ville to A-town initially runs toward the southwest between Knoxville to Chattanooga, I realized that since I would be driving in basically the opposite direction of the storm, I could pass through it pretty quickly. 

I checked out of my hotel as required by 11:00 am, but waited around until 12:30 pm to leave. I hung around the hotel's business center with a big cup of Starbuck's coffee and watched on my phone as the front passed overhead. I hit the road just as the center of the storm was directly over me and visibility was pretty limited for about the first 15 minutes of driving. But as I got a little further west, the rain let up and after a half hour I was able to turn off the wipers for the whole rest of the way home. 

The center of the storm was over Atlanta when I was about halfway home, but by the time I got here it had moved well to the east. So basically I made it home safe and sound and not too late in the day (4:00 pm) despite my concerns about the weather. 

Big Ears was a blast, as always, and now I have to get back to my regular routine of walking and sitting and watching what I eat.

 

Fourth Day of Big Ears, 17th of Spring, 525 M.E. (Helios):  Even though all of the Big Ears events are indoors, there are some longish walks (about ½ mile) between venues so the weather matters. It's been pleasantly warm all weekend with highs in the mid 70s, but some occasional rain is forecast for today. There's also some severe weather alerts for tomorrow's drive home to Atlanta, so there's that to worry about. 

Meanwhile, one more and final day of music.

 

Third Day of Big Ears, 16th of Spring, 525 M.E. (Electra): Running on four to five hours of sleep a night, eating catch as catch can, and taking in six to eight sets of innovative new music a day. In other words, still living the dream. 

I return on Monday.

Second Day of Big Ears, 15th of Spring, 525 M.E. (Deneb): Still at Big Ears. Regular posting to resume shortly.

 

First Day of Big Ears, 14th of Spring, 525 M.E. (Castor): I'm heading to Knoxville, Tennessee today for the annual Big Ears music festival. I won't have much time to post over here and coverage of the musical events of the next several days will primarily be posted over at Music Dissolves Water.  

BTW, the hotel here was able to check me in to a non-ADA room, no problem (and no additional cost).

 

Sixth Ocean, 13th Day of Spring, 525 M.E. (Betelgeuse): My car is back in the shop again. I had it repaired last week, and then yesterday the dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree again, just like it had last week before I took it in. I drove it back to the dealer (they have the codes for the computer components) but don't know for sure when I'm getting my car back.

If I don't have it back by tomorrow, I'm driving their loaner car to Knoxville for this year's Big Ears festival. Come hell or high water, I'm going to Big Ears in whatever vehicle I have in my possession by mid-morning tomorrow. 

I got an email confirmation from the hotel there for my reservation, but it turns out that for some reason I booked an ADA-compliant room. I felt bad about that - I don't need (or want) an ADA room, and I have empathy for someone who does need it but can't stay at my Hyatt because I've got the room. I sort of feel like I'm parking in the Handicap Only space. 

I called the hotel to see if I can change the reservation, but the rooms they claim were available were $150 to $200 more per night. For four nights, that's $600 to $800 more for an already expensive stay. I have empathy, but maybe not $600-$800 worth. I'm sticking with the ADA room, and am hoping that it still has a shower and not just a bathtub. 

I honestly thought that the hotel would thank me for stepping up and offering to take a different room and not try to upsell me on some bigger suite, but go figure. If some else who needs the room can't book it, it's on them, not me.

 

The Ant Garden, 12th Day of Spring, 525 M.E. (Atlas): Although I've covered the Jimmy Carter 39-Mile Challenge and completed my miles by the 10th of the month, my total walking/hiking distance is only 265 miles so far this year. That's the linear distance from my house to Panama City Beach in Florida, and a circle with r = 265 miles centered on my house takes in parts of nine states, including all of Georgia except for the southernmost tip of Trail Ridge (that dick-like appendage dangling down from the state's southern border) and the southern two thirds of Cumberland Island. The circle crosses the Atlantic coast at the northern end of Cumberland and again just south of Charleston, South Carolina. At two points along the Redneck Riviera, it reaches the Gulf (Gulf of Mexico? Gulf of Chicxulub? Gulf of Jimmy Buffet? Gulf of Margaritaville? Gulf of the Depends Adult Undergarment?). 

If you've been anywhere near the news, a talk show, the radio, social or antisocial media, or virtually anywhere, you've probably heard that Trump's cabinet discussed highly sensitive war plans over an unsecured private app, and accidentally invited a journalist to listen in. Idiots. But here's the thing: forgetting the "guest list" for a moment, the use of third-party apps that do not retain data is obviously to avoid leaving a discovery trail. Project 2025 training videos allegedly recommend this very strategy to stymie subpoenas. Russians and the Chinese may be listening in, but at least the Dems won't get the chance to hear what they're up to. 

This is a coup, folks. The evidence is mounting every day, every hour.       

  

 

Godsong of the Pale Blue Women, 11th Day of Spring, 525 M.E. (Helios): So, cool, I never thought I'd have a ringside seat to The End of a small-d democratic United Snakes. 

I grew up in the 60s and am of the generation that had to do duck-and-cover drills under our desks in case of nuclear war (as if). For the first 35 years of my life, I was fairly convinced that if something else didn't get me first, I would burn to death, along with most of the rest of humanity, in a global thermonuclear war. It wasn't a question of if, but of when. There were too many nukes pointed at too many people with too many generals and politicians stoking fear and hatred and barking warnings for it not to happen, and all we needed was for one madman to launch one missile to get everyone else's arsenal flying all over the globe. It seemed inevitable. Why stay in college, why go to night school?, the Talking Heads asked, and I couldn't answer, even if I was in college when the song was recorded.

But then in 1989, the Berlin Wall came down. I watched it live on CNN - young Berliners with sledge hammers tearing down big slabs of concrete while the crowd around them cheered and the police looked away. For the first time in my life, I felt hope. Maybe our species will survive after all. Maybe, for all our faults, we really are the good guys and maybe sometimes the good guys win. Democracy spread across Eastern Europe and elsewhere in the world, the Soviet Union collapsed a few years after,  and I felt a newfound optimism for the future of our planet. Sure, we still had problems, lots of them, but things were moving in the right direction and it seemed like everyone saw the worldwide benefits of peace and freedom over war and authoritarianism.

I never would have guessed back then that a mere 25 years later we would see Nazi-style fascism take hold in the Snakes. I never imagined that the amerikan people would clamor for an authoritarian leader to take away rights and basic freedoms from immigrants, foreigners, racial and gender minorities, and those who disagreed with them politically. Extraordinary rendition of Latin Americans to be shipped off to brutal El Salvador prisons, with the president threatening to do the same to anyone who protests their treatment. Or protests genocide of Palestinians. Or steps out of line at all. 

Even though the rest of the world woke up from history, the United Snakes couldn't overcome the karma of its own history. Nothing good can grow from soil planted with African slavery and the genocide of indigenous people and fertilized with capitalist imperialism and runaway materialism. Nothing good can grow out of that soil and even though I understood that, I didn't think I'd actually live to see the karmic consequences actually come to pass. 

My only solace is that I won't live long enough to suffer the effects of climate change finally washing this continent clean again through floods, hurricanes, droughts, and wildfire. A hard rain falling and washing the scum off the Earth once and for all as the karmic cycle finally completes its full 360° revolution. Good luck with that one, kids. Sorry it had to happen to you.

 

The Remnants of Bela, 10th Day of Spring, 525 M.E. (Electra): Hands off Greenland! Hands off Panama! Hands off Mexico! And Canada! And Gaza! 

The short-fingered orange vulgarian in the White House likes to run his paws over whatever attracts his eye, be it pussy, real estate, or whatever, in an infantile, oral-manual sort of way. It's up to amerika, or what's left of her, to make him keep his hands to himself.  

I bow to no king. A luta continua. 

Day of Sargasso, 9th of Spring, 525 M.E. (Deneb): BioLab Inc., a division of KiK Consumer Products, manufactures chemicals for use in swimming pools. The company was founded in 1955 to provide cleaning products for the poultry industry but pivoted into pool and spa chemicals with the release of BioGuard in 1962. Since 2003, BioLab has been headquartered in Lawrenceville, Georgia and was acquired by KiK in January 2014. Since 2022, the CEO of KiK has been Michael Sload.

The company's Conyers manufacturing plant is the eighth largest employer in Rockdale County and has Rockdale's highest assessed property value ($113M), representing 3% of the total assessed value of the county. 

On May 25, 2004, a warehouse at BioLab's Conyers plant caught on fire, resulting in the mandatory evacuation of citizens within a 1.5-mile radius and the closure of Interstate Highway I-20 . A voluntary evacuation north of the highway also occurred and 28 people were hospitalized, although there were no major injuries.

A 2015 fire in an outside storage area of the plant was contained by Rockdale County firefighters, but six of the firefighters were treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Smaller fires were also reported in 2010 and 2016.

On September 14, 2020, water from a leaking pipe at the plant came into contact with trichloroisocyanuric acid (TCCA), a potent disinfectant, algaecide, and bactericide. The flood water became milky white and soon afterwards began producing heat due to exothermic decomposition of TCAA. Firefighters sprayed water on decomposing bags of TCCA in the hopes of keeping the heat from the reaction lower than the combustion temperature of the chemical. Vapors from the reaction lead to hospitalization of nine of the firefighters for observations. No TCCA was reported to have caught fire during this incident, but four days later, some of the TCCA that had been moved to a trailer did catch on fire.

On September 29, 2024, a fire caused by a malfunctioning fire sprinkler broke out on the roof of a warehouse, releasing massive clouds of orange and black smoke. The warehouse walls and roof collapsed, and although the fire was brought under control, decomposition reactions continued to produced toxic gas, sparking evacuations and shelter-in-place orders for neighboring areas. Interstate 20 was closed again, and residents of Conyers were ordered to evacuate. A shelter-in-place order was put into effect for the rest of surrounding Rockdale County. The smoke was visible 30 miles away at the Hartsfield Atlanta LaToya Jackson Chicken 'n' Biscuits International Airport, and I was able to detect a strong chlorine chemical smell here in Atlanta. EPA air monitoring systems in the area detected chlorine, chloramine, and chlorine compounds produced by the decomposition of TCCA. 

I bring all this up not to bash BioLabs (manufacture of exothermic chemicals is an inherently risky and challenging proposition) but to remind my fellow Georgians, along with everyone else, about the dangers in our midst. However, Lee Zeldin, the former Long Island congressman with little to no environmental experience but nonetheless selected by Trump as the new Administrator of the EPA, has decided that the Agency's mission is not to protect human health and the environment but to make it more affordable for people to buy cars, heat their homes, and run businesses. To make running business more affordable to companies like BioLabs, Zeldin announced plans to roll back environmental rules on everything from clean air to clean water and climate change. 

If you were affected by the BioLabs fires, if you don't like smelling chlorine gas in the air or dislike mandatory evacuations and shelter-in-place mandates, well, I don't know how to tell you this, but get used to it. The six separate incidents at one plant alone described above occurred even under that mantle of overregulation and undue zealous enforcement the Republicans like to complain about. Fewer environmental regulations, less oversight of industrial operations, and lower compliance costs for chemical manufacturing will only mean more fires, more chemical releases, and more evacuations, not only at BioLabs but all across amerika. And when they do occur, EPA will have less resources and fewer personnel to monitor air quality and issue advisories. 

And don't get me started on FEMA. 

But take solace in this: BioLabs will experience lower operating costs and realize higher corporate profits, and as you hope the facemasks you gave your children fit properly and will protect their little lungs as you rush them from your home to outside the evacuation zone, know the sacrifice you make will mean a sizable annual bonus for KiK CEO Michael Sload.

 

Day of Kalimantan, 8th of Spring, 525 M.E. (Castor): Turns out there was nothing wrong with my car that $2,250 couldn't fix.

Tuesday, after my dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree with every possible light and indicator fully illuminated, I dropped the car off at Mr. Goodwrench to diagnose what was wrong. After 24 hours, they called and basically admitted they had no idea what the problem was. It had something to do with the car's computer system, they suspected, and only the manufacturer had the diagnostic codes to figure out the problem. They suggested I take it to the dealer, but still charged me $125 for their time looking at the vehicle even if they couldn't come up with an answer.

I drove the vehicle to the dealer as advised, and after about two hours they concluded that it was indeed a failure of the different computer components to properly communicate with each other, started by a low and underperforming battery. In addition to needing a new battery, they also noted that I was way past due to have the spark plugs replaced, that my front brakes needed adjustment, that the gas cap wasn't properly holding the tank pressure, and something to do with the "gas induction system." 

Other than oil changes and filter replacements, it's been a while since I had any real maintenance performed on the car. Last time it was serviced had to have been at least a couple years ago, before the covids. I can't put an exact date of the last maintenance/service visit other than it was sometime between 2014 and 2019, so I was past due. I agreed to the full monty service, especially considering I have a road trip coming up and don't want to break down somewhere in rural Tennessee.

It took them until the end of the day to complete all the work, but they gave me a loaner car in the meanwhile, a brand new 2025 Lexus SUV, to ride around in while they did the work. Unfortunately, I couldn't think of anything flashy or flamboyant to do in the loaner car that afternoon while I had it, and it spent most of its time parked in my driveway, where I think no neighbors saw or appreciated it. 

Their charge, at dealership rates, was $2,125 which, plus Goodwrench's $125, brings the total up to $2,250. Unexpected expense for a ROM on a fixed income but considering that's about 95% of my total maintenance cost over the past decade on a 15-year-old vehicle, I'd say I'm probably doing pretty well.

 

Plaint of the Host, 7th Day of Spring, 525 M.E. (Betelgeuse): Disturbing thought - Trump is apparently indebted to Elon Musk because of Musk's quarter-billion dollars in campaign contributions. Vice President JD Vance is a protege of Musk's former business partner, Peter Thiele. Musk and Thiele, both South African nepo babies, have extensive business dealings across the world, including in Russia, and Musk in recent months has had several conversations with Putin that we know of, possibly more. 

Could Musk and Thiele be Kremlin's handlers for Trump and Vance, Putin's "useful idiots" for destroying the United States from within? 

Just asking questions.    

 

Day of the Gamelan, 5th of Spring, 525 M.E. (Helios): The world is apparently too busy too have time for me right now.

I got a call this morning (8:00 am!) from my HVAC service company saying that they needed to reschedule the annual maintenance we had planned for today on my home air conditioner. Due to work load, they won't have anyone available for at least two weeks. No worries though, it's working fine and I can easily wait until their next available date of April 2 for the work.

While driving around last night on errands, the "check engine" light in my car came on. It's probably nothing - the car runs fine and the internet assures me the light's usually just a malfunctioning sensor. But since today became unexpectedly free (I don't need to wait around for the HVAC guy), I decided to take the car to Mr. Goodwrench to check it out. But instead of just the "check engine" light coming on, the whole dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree this morning. There was no available light that wasn't fully lit, but the car still started and drove fine. I took it straight to Goodwrench.

Who apparently doesn't have time for me either. They said they could get to it tomorrow "or the next day." Lots of people apparently dropped off their vehicles before me I was told, and they're slammed. I pretended I was going to take my car elsewhere in that case and finally got them to concede to looking at the car by tomorrow or maybe even later today. At least to run a scan and diagnostics to see what the lights are trying to tell us. I walked home from the garage (.75 miles).

But meanwhile, I'm without a vehicle in a very car-centric city. Luckily, I'm retired and don't have anywhere I'm required to be, at least for the next couple of days, and have enough groceries in stock to see me though the better part of the week. I can also walk to some nearby markets and restaurants.  

It's close to 5:00 pm (quitting time) right now as I write this, so it appears they're not getting to me today. Maybe the world will find time for me tomorrow.             

Krakatoa Day, 4th of Spring, 525 M.E. (Electra): We're fucked. Last Wednesday, Lee Zeldin, the former Long Island congressman appointed by Trump to head the EPA despite a lack of environmental experience, announced plans to roll back 31 key environmental rules on everything from clean air to clean water and climate change. In announcing the rule changes, Zeldin claimed he was “driving a dagger through the heart of climate-change religion and ushering in America’s Golden Age.” 

Last month, three former EPA Administrators published an op-ed in the New York Times warning of the likely environmental harm the Trump administration imposed by freezing funds, cutting spending, and firing more than a thousand Federal employees. 

After Zeldin's announcements last Wedensday, the former Administrators issued a follow-up statement on Friday,  saying the proposed rollbacks endangered the lives of millions of Americans and abandoned the agency’s mission to protect human health and the environment. They said the plan to undo environmental regulations “sets the country on a course that will cause irreparable harm to Americans, businesses, and environmental protection efforts nationwide.” 

Former EPA administrator Gina McCarthy, who led the Agency under Barack Obama and was a top climate adviser to Joe Biden, called Zeldin’s announcement “the most disastrous day in EPA history.”

Zeldin’s intention to undo environmental protections was nothing short of a “catastrophe” and “represents the abandonment of a long history” of EPA efforts to protect the environment, according to William K Reilly, who led the Agency under George HW Bush and played a key role in amending the Clean Air Act in 1990.

“What this administration is doing is endangering all of our lives – ours, our children, our grandchildren,” added Christine Todd Whitman, who led the EPA under George W Bush. “We all deserve to have clean air to breathe and clean water to drink." 

Zeldin also announcement that EPA is going to reconsider a scientific finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. The agency’s 2009 finding is a bedrock of US environmental law and has been the legal basis for most of EPA's actions against climate change, including regulations for motor vehicles, power plants, and other pollution sources.  

"If there’s an endangerment finding to be found anywhere, it should be found on this administration because what they’re doing is so contrary to what the Environmental Protection Agency is about,” Whitman said. She and the other former Agency heads were stunned that the Trump administration would even try to undo the finding and other longtime agency rules. If approved, the rule changes could cause “severe harms” to the environment, public health and the economy, they said.

Zeldin "now seems to be doing the bidding of the fossil fuel industry more than complying with the mission of the EPA,” said McCarthy.  Environmental protection and economic prosperity were not mutually exclusive, the three agreed, saying strong regulations had enabled both a cleaner environment and a growing economy since the agency’s founding 55 years ago.

Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, rolled back more than 100 environmental laws in his first term as president. He campaigned on a promise to “drill, baby, drill” and vowed to ease regulations on fossil-fuel companies. In this current term, he has frozen funds for climate programs and other environmental spending, fired scientists working for the National Weather Service, and cut federal support for renewable energy.

Reilly said he feared that Zeldin and Trump would return to a pre-EPA era when industry was free to pollute virtually at will, filling the air in many cities with dangerous smog and rivers with industrial waste. “I wonder if the malefactors are going to give us more burning rivers,” Reilly said in reference to the 1969 incident in which Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River caught fire, spurring passage of the federal Clean Water Act and creation of the EPA a year later during the Nixon administration .

Among the changes proposed by Zeldin are plans to rewrite a rule restricting air pollution from fossil-fuel-fired power plants and a separate measure restricting emissions from cars and trucks. 

Biden, who made fighting climate change a top priority of his presidency, had said the power-plant rules of his administration would reduce pollution and improve public health while supporting the reliable, long-term supply of electricity that America needs. Half of all new cars and trucks sold in the US will be zero-emission by 2030, he pledged. Zeldin and Trump have incorrectly called the car rule an electric vehicle “mandate.″

The EPA also will take ease rules restricting industrial pollution of mercury and other air toxins and the “good neighbor” rule intended to restrict smokestack emissions that affect downwind areas. Zeldin also targeted a clean-water law that provides federal protections for rivers, streams and wetlands.

Environmental group have said the moves would result in the greatest increase in US pollution in decades.

Day of Doldrums, 3rd of Spring, 525 M.E. (Deneb): The severe weather system that spawned tornadoes and thunderstorms across the Midwest passed through here (Atlanta) last night. The storm, which had killed a total of at least 36 people, was part of a huge cross-country system that dropped hail as large as baseballs and produced tornadoes. The system also caused wildfires driven by hurricane-force winds, and dust storms that led to crashes that killed at least 13 people in Kansas, Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle.

It passed over my house a little after midnight last evening with loud thunder, spectacular lightening, and whipping winds, but was over in a matter of minutes. Rain and high winds still persisted for several more hours, but nothing more dramatic than the higher end of our usual thunderstorms.

The storm had me spooked. Not only am I still PTSD'd from the tree that fell on my house during Hurricane Zeta in October 2020, but I've seem many other trees fall on other houses both before and after that. The forecasters were warning of the kind of storm seen "once in a lifetime" and even confirmed that one tornado had touched down about 20 miles from here, although its track passed northwest of me.

I prepped for this storm. I put fresh batteries in my flashlights, gathered together all my candles, and filled jugs and containers with several gallons of water. The main bath is the interior-most room in my basement-less house and I figured I might be spending the night in the tub, so I set up several candles in there and made sure a lighter was right next to them. A waterless bath by candlelight.  How romantic.

I even turned my car around in the driveway in case I needed to make a rapid escape without the time needed to turn around later. While I was doing the later, my next-door neighbors saw me and invited me to ride out the storm with them and some friends of theirs in their basement. I took them up on the offer.

The power went out around 12:30 am, but not because of the usual fallen trees but a power surge that blew at least three transformers. We watched and saw the flash of sparks and heard the loud booms as they went off in sequence, one, two, three. 

But as I said before, the storm quickly settled down, although the rain and some wind continued. I was back home by 2:00 am, and the power came back on by 5:30 am.

So things are rarely as bad as our imagination makes it. But that doesn't mean that bad things don't sometimes happen. It's just that we imagine them more.

Day of the Palisades, 2nd of Spring, 525 M.E.. (Castor):  I still bow to no king.

Lee Zeldin, the Republican congressman with little environmental experience but nonetheless named by Mumps to be the Administrator of the EPA, has cancelled $7 billion of climate research grants. He claimed he was driving a dagger through the heart of "climate-change religion" and ushering in "America’s Golden Age.” He further claimed the mission of the Agency was not to protect the environment but to make it more affordable for people to buy cars, heat their homes, and run businesses.

That is not correct. The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is to protect the environment. And Lee Zeldin is not doing a very good job of it.

On Wednesday, federal Judge Tanya Chutkan, the judge who was the presiding judge over Mumps' criminal trial over the January 6 insurrection before the case was dismissed after the election, is ruling on a case over the research grant cuts brought by Climate United, which coordinates investment in clean energy projects. Chutkan told the government's lawyers they needed “some kind of evidence” of wrongdoing to back up the cuts, and asked, “Can you proffer any evidence that [the grant] was illegal, or evidence of abuse or fraud or bribery – that any of that was improperly or unlawfully done, other than the fact that Mr. Zeldin doesn’t like it?”

Marc Sacks, a government lawyer, said, “The determination is based on the information contained in the termination letter.”

Chutkan told him, “That’s pretty circular.” She also said, “I don’t have the credible evidence that’s required."

The hearing ended without a ruling or temporary restraining order, but Chutkan told both sides to make new filings by Monday evening. Climate United is to amend its lawsuit and the government is to provide information regarding any alleged wrongdoing.

By the way, speaking of climate change, there was a sandstorm during this year's Iditarod dog-sled race (a sandstorm!), and a massive storm system with multiple tornados that has already killed 17 in the South is heading toward my Atlanta home as I write this.  

Maelstrom, 1st Day of Spring, 525 M.E. (Betelgeuse): Happy Spring! We're finally here according to the New Revised Universal Solar Calendar.  I took my daily walk today (11 miles - a Polk!) in shorts and a t-shirt as the temps were in the upper 70s.

I'm proud to note that no Georgia Senators voted today in favor of the Republican budget bill, unlike New York so-called Democrats Schumer and Gillibrand. Also siding with the Republicans were John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, both of New Hampshire, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada,  Gary Peters of Michigan, and Angus King of Maine, who's technically an independent but caucuses with the Democrats. 

Gillibrand's been on thin ice with me for a while, ever since she teamed with Schumer to force Al Franken's resignation. Fetterman, this year's version of Joe Manchin, doesn't surprise me, but I expected better from the rest. Shame!  

 

The Silent Guest, 73rd and Last Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Atlas): I got my test results back from Tuesday's doctor visit, and apparently I'm healthy. Fuck, death might have been the only way out of this Trumpian horror show in amerika.

My glucose level, which had been a high 179 mg/dL a year ago, is  now a low 53 mg/dL. I attribute the drop to my low-sugar, low-carb, low-fat diet of the past year. Similarly, my A1C fell from a prediabetic 6% a year ago down to a "normal" 5%. I don't have diabetes!

Also, a side benefit of that diet is my weight has gone down from 220 to 167 pounds, a 53-pound loss in a year. Actually most of the loss occurred over a seven-month period between last April and November.

Finally, I also had my PSA screening done, and my PSA came in at 0.78 ng/mL, the low end of normal. So I don't have prostate cancer either. Fuck! Is there no winning?    

I may have to take up cigarettes and heroin to escape Trump.  

 

The Numb Recall, 72th Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Helios): I went full Tyler today, a 10-mile walk along the Chattahoochee taking in the Cochran Shoals and Sope Creek loop trails. I'm at 50 miles now for the month of March, far beyond the Carter 39-mile challenge, and 216 miles on the year.

Mumps, I now realize, is an existential threat to me. I'm retired, and I rely on my life savings in my IRA and 401(k)s and on Social Security to support me. But with Mumps recklessly destroying the economy with his ridiculous, feckless, on-again/off-again tariffs, he's tanking the stock market and the money in my accounts is rapidly evaporating.  He's also becoming increasingly vocal about ending Social Security. I could survive on my savings should Social Security disappear, or I could rely on Social Security should my savings evaporate, but I can't survive losing both. 

On top of that, he's already conceded that, yeah, another recession may be coming. I can foresee the kind of double-digit inflation occurring here that has made the currency virtually worthless in other countries, so on top of losing my income and savings, I may be looking at radically escalating costs - for everything from food to power to gas to basic services.

It's not far-fetched to imagine that should all three occur (stock market crash wiping out my savings, Social Security getting discontinued, and double-digit inflation rendering the dollar worthless), I could be homeless.

Ergo, Mumps is an existential threat. But at least I'll have the reassurance that multi-billionaires won't have to pay high taxes.   

Day of the Rains, 71st of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Elektra): Doctor's appointment today. I'm fine, just a routine follow-up exam for the hypertension experienced back in 2023. As part of the procedure, the nurse who took my vitals asked, "Do you experience any depression?" 

Are you fucking kidding me? If you're not depressed, you're not following the news very closely. You're not looking at the stock market or the balance in your IRA or 401(k) account. You're not aware that Mumps, after gutting or attempting to gut the civil service, is now looking at your Social Security and Medicare to cut next. You're not paying attention to the way amerika's turned its back to our former ally in Ukraine and have signaled to Russia it can do "whatever the hell they want" with the rest of Europe, if not the world. You haven't seen the end of representative democracy, a free press, and civil rights here. You haven't yet realized that "liberty" now means "privilege" for wealthy, white, patriarchal plutocrats.

"Yes, you fucking bet I'm fucking depressed!," I should have told her, but instead, in the interest of just moving things along, I said "no" and left it at that. Who's got time to explain all that other shit? I came back home and sat my 90 minutes of alternating-day meditation.

I'm waiting for my lab results to come back and tell me whether I'm healthy or not.           

 

Day of the Lamb, 70th of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Deneb): Saturday, I tried to extend my usual neighborhood walk by taking in some surrounding streets and was disappointed to see that my typical 5.8-mile loop came in at only 7.3 miles, an Andrew Jackson. Today, I walked the exact same extended route with the same surrounding streets and all, and at the end walked an additional 1.0 mile (a half mile down the Beltline and back). Despite the additional mile, my phone registered only 7.6 miles, another Jackson.

However, this brought my total mileage for the month of March up to 40.4 miles, a Ronald Reagan, and completes my Jimmy Carter 39-Mile Walk Challenge.

I do plan to keep walking despite this triumphant achievement. Another 7-mile walk will bring me up to the current despicable administration, so Wednesday I'll be sure to head to the Chattahoochee that day for my 10-mile loop trail to bring my total up to the 50th President, whomever that should turn out to be. Jasmine Crockett? Taylor Swift? Willow Smith? Charlie Kirk?

The High Winds, 69th Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Castor): Just another day in Paradise. Livin' the dream. La vida loca, baby. 

Nothing else to say today. Maybe think of something tomorrow. 

How are things your way?   

Day of the Roots, 68th of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Betelgeuse): I walked another Jackson today, although I honestly thought it would be longer. I improvised a new route today - Beltline Trail to 26th Street, 26th to Peachtree Street, Peachtree to Peachtree Battle, Peachtree Battle to Northside, and then around Memorial Park, around Bobby Jones Golf Course, and back on the Beltline. I was fully expecting at least a Tyler but had to settle for a Jackson, which was still better than Thursday's Monroe. The good news, though, is that it brings my month-to-date total up to a Franklin Roosevelt for the Jimmy Carter, 39-Mile Walk Challenge.

Daylight Savings starts tomorrow - apparently, it's Spring Forward Day today. Or tonight. Or tomorrow. Who knows, really? But longer days mean more hours I can walk, and maybe start to get in some more Tylers on my alternating-day hikes.

In keeping with my tradition of bashing Mumps each day, I'll conclude with this: Orange Man bad!      

 

Day of the Fronds, 67th of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Atlas): In the first six weeks of the Mumps administration, the president has attempted to end almost every protection for the environment that has been put in place over the past decades. From the Orwellian deletion of “climate” from government websites to the declaration of a national “energy emergency” even as the US drills for more oil and gas than any country in world history, it's as if we're now living in some sort of alternate reality, 

Mumps' approach to dismantling environmental protections has already been far more extreme this second time around, including the mass firing of EPA staff, the scrapping of climate rules, the freezing of scientific research, and the fast-tracking of oil and gas projects without proper reviews. They are dismantling the very apparatus built over a generation to protect our clean air, water, and a livable climate. 

The pollution unleashed by Mumps' actions will be felt by generations to come, who will have to live on a dangerously overheating planet. At its heart, the climate crisis is a human crisis, and the tearing apart of environmental protections have real-life consequences. What about the family living next to a coal plant? What happens to the people waiting for the lead pipes that provide their drinking water to finally be replaced? What about the indigenous tribes seeing oil pipelines pushed across their land, the disaster-hit households unable to afford skyrocketing insurance costs, the people fleeing worsening wildfires and floods, the kids struggling with asthma from air pollution?

But at least we'll always have the "gulf  of amerika."

 

Day of the Mists, 66th of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Helios): I got a late start today and only walked a Monroe, so my Jimmy Carter 39-Mile Walk challenge total for the month of March is now a McKinley, or as we prefer to say, a Denali. 

I had a strange dream last night. I won't bore you with the details, other than at one point I was looking at a coworker's exquisitely detailed notes on a project, and as I thumber through the many pages, cluttered with diagrams, notes, and bar charts, it began to take on the appearance of a graphic novel.

I woke up soon afterward but as I rolled over to get back to sleep, I started to realize that the format of those notes/graphic novel in my dream were the perfect format for the book project I abandoned a year ago. I won't bore you with the details of the book project, partly because I'm still working out the details and want to get everything right before I share anything. But I got started on the project this morning right after my a.m. coffee, and was surprised to see how well all the pieces were fitting together, at least initially. I got so engrossed tht I lost track of time, which is why I got a late start on my walk today and only walked a Monroe and not the full Tyler as I had planned.

 

Back of the Driver's Neck, 65th Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Electra): I got into a conversation with the produce manger at my local supermarket. He confirmed that the majority of their berries come from Mexico this time of year, even if the suppliers are based in Florida or Texas. He also confirmed that any day now, I can expect to see steep price increases due to Mumps' tariffs on Mexico. 

Why am I picking berries to talk about the tariffs? Because that's what will affect me first and most directly: since about this time last year, berries have been an important part of my diet. A bowlful of berries over yogurt (plain, nonfat) make up one of my  meals each day, and in a week I go through at least 12 ounces of blackberries and raspberries, 24 ounces of  blueberries, and 32 ounces of strawberries (actually, that many ounces of berries go through me each week). Today, those berries cost me $22.50 (my receipt claims I saved $5.91, but over what, some random price they could have charged me?). A 25% tariff, however, could drive the cost up to $28.12 or more, depending on whether the wholesalers and retailers mark up the markup. 

I'll survive, at least with regards to berries. But I'm still driving a 2009 car, which won't last forever, and someday I'll probably need a new computer. 

Mt point is tariffs suck and Mumps is stupid.