Descent of the Host, 46th Day of Childwinter, 526 M.E. (Deneb): A monk once asked Zen Master Jōshū, "What is a true statement?" Jōshū replied, "Your mother is ugly."

Is there any surprise that Jōshū (778-897 CE) is one of my favorite Zen Masters? 

When a monk once bid him farewell, Jōshū asked, "Where are you going?" The monk replied, "I'm going to visit various places to learn the buddha-dharma."

Jōshū advised him, "Do not stay where buddha exists and run quickly from where no-buddha exists." The monk replied, "In that case, when you put it like that, I'll stay right here."

Jōshū was trying to get the monk to realize that the Way is not to be found far or near, within or without. To search for it is to miss it. Jōshū had learned this when he asked his teacher, Nansen, “What is the Way?” and Nansen famously answered, “Ordinary mind is the Way.” 

Jōshū asked, “Should I seek after it or not?” and Nansen answered, “If you try to turn toward it, you go against it.” 

“The Way does not belong to knowing or not knowing," Nansen explained. "Knowing is delusion. Not knowing is blank consciousness. When you have truly reached the Way beyond all doubt you will find it as vast and boundless as outer space. How can it be talked about on a level of right and wrong?” 

Zen Master Dogen (1200-1253 CE) said, "Just cast aside body and mind and practice without desire either to realize the Way or to attain the dharma. Then you can be called an undefiled practioner." John Daido Loori (1931-2007) said, "If you seek it from others, you go astray. If you seek it from within, you are far removed from it."   

Today was a walking day, but I barely got in half a Washington because of the rain. Tomorrow is a sitting day, and only the weather in my own mind can deter me then. The forecast, as always, is foggy. 

 

Day of the Inn Dweller, 45th of Childwinter, 526 M.E. (Castor): The things I do for you. Today, I completed my review of the EPA's regulatory impact analysis titled, Rescission of the Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding and Motor Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Emission Standards Under the Clean Air Act. Don't expect it to appear of a bestseller list any time soon.

The February 2026 report (EPA-420-R-26-002) was prepared by the EPA, as in "Environmental Protection," but you'd hardly know it by the report. Instead of attempting to refute the science behind the effect of CO₂ emissions on climate, either technically or even by simply saying, "we disagree," the so-called "regulatory impact analysis" only considers the economics of the decision to repeal the Endangerment Finding (or as Bill Mahar hilariously mispronounced it last night, the "Engagement Rule"). In short, if you don't want to read the 35-page document, it basically concludes that since U.S. consumers don't buy as many electric vehicles as other types of automobile, repealing the Endangerment Finding and its associated regulations will give buyers more "consumer choice" and lower costs for cars without emission restrictions. 

Amazingly, the Environmental Protection Agency didn't consider the protection of the environment in their decision. The word "environment" only appears once in the entire document when not used as part of the agency's name, or in footnotes referring to other organizations or the titles of other reports and documents. Similarly, the word "climate" only appears three times, and one of those is merely a reference to something called the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability at Harvard University, and another is a footnote reference to the same institute. 

The third and final use of the word "climate" comes in a sentence on page 5, stating that a model for automobile production and pricing decisions should "capture how consumers make vehicle purchase and driving decisions to maximize their welfare based on their preferences for vehicle attributes (e.g., efficiency, size, speed, reliability) and travel, new and used vehicle prices, and fuel price expectations, subject to their budget constraints and any location constraints (e.g., climate, commuting options, access to fueling infrastructure, etc)." Climate, as considered here, merely considers if a consumer lives in a warm or cold region, and could easily be replaced by the term "temperature zone."

No, the report is a complete and startling abandonment of the agency's responsibility not only to protect the environment but to even consider the environment. It's an absolute dereliction of duty. The analysis simply justifies rescinding the Endangerment Finding because consumers seem to prefer gasoline-powered vehicles, and because automobiles will be cheaper without emission controls than with them. In short, it's the sort of report one might expect to see from an automobile-manufacturer trade group or the oil-and-gas lobby, but not from the EPA.      

Lee Zeldin, the Long Island hack with no prior environmental experience named by the Stable Genius to head the EPA, stated a year ago that the agency's new mission is to focus not on environmental protection but on fostering economic growth, energy independence, and auto-industry expansion by prioritizing the rollback of Biden-era climate rules and cutting costs for consumers. In announcing the rescission, Zeldin said he was "driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion.” 

EPA's rescission of the Endangerment Finding without consideration of effect on the climate or the environment is exactly the kind of reckless and idiotic actions this godawful administration has inflicted on the citizens of these United States.

The Invading Past, 44th Day of Childwinter, 526 M.E. (Betelgeuse): Climatologist Katharine Hayhoe points out that U.S. carbon emissions are ticking up as the Stable Genius doubles down on coal and other fossil fuels and blocks new wind and solar projects. But China’s emissions, on the other hand, appear to have peaked and may now be starting to actually decline. 

Last year, China installed a full half of all the world's new wind and solar energy, and over the past two years China installed more new solar power each year than the U.S. has installed in total across its entire history. China's clean energy exports alone are cutting CO₂ outside its borders by 1% year after year.

China is apparently looking at solar and wind energy as a cheap (free) source of energy that has the added benefit of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and enriches innovators and tech leaders. The Stable Genius looks at solar and wind energy and doesn't see an opportunity to enrich the oil and coal tycoons who donated to his campaign, so instead doubles down on U.S. reliance on expensive and harmful fossil fuels and allows China to take the lead on technological innovation. 

As was widely reported, the Stable Genius asked oil executives in 2024 to donate $1 billion for his campaign. The request was arguable legal, but the industry had a long list of policy actions it wanted, including dismantling parts of Biden’s green agenda, rolling back regulations that threatened to crimp their profits, and specific executive orders they hoped he would sign.

Financial disclosure records show the oil and gas industry contributed at least $75 million to the campaign and affiliated PACs spent an additional $104 million on lobbying in 2025. Yesterday, when EPA nullified the Endangerment Finding, the Stable Genius provided exactly the benefits the oil companies were seeking.

Nullification of the Endangerment Finding will lead directly to the cancellation of vehicle greenhouse-gas standards. As described in an analysis by the Center for American Progress, new vehicles will consume more gallons of gas per mile than those already on the road, which will increase demand for gasoline and thus the cost per gallon. In short, U.S. drivers will need to fuel up more often and will pay higher prices per gallon when they do. The EPA's own analysis of the effects of repealing the standards concedes the nullification will increase gasoline prices.

Even more significantly, revoking the standards will worsen global climate changes, resulting in  decreased health outcomes, increased property damage from extreme weather, lost agricultural productivity, and increased energy costs. 

The financial burdens of climate change are already being felt. More frequent and severe weather events are already increasing insurance costs. The most damaging hurricanes are now three times more likely than they were in the early 1900s, and the percentage of Atlantic hurricanes that reach Category 3 strength or higher has doubled since 1980. Meanwhile, the area burned by wildfires annually in the Western U.S. has increased approximately 800 percent since 1985, with about half of the increase attributable to climate change.

Revoking the Endangerment Finding and the standards that flow from it means oil and gas companies will make more money, while U.S. households deal with higher energy prices and the costs of climate change that those companies have caused. If the Stable Genius actually wants to lower prices, then he should drop his favoritism toward the oil-and-gas industry and follow China's lead and support solutions that lower costs and raise wages for citizens.

 

Day of the Cat, 43rd of Childwinter, 526 M.E. (Aldebaran): The front page of the EPA's website proudly announced that, at the Stable Genius' direction, the agency just took the "single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history." They did it, folks - they repealed the Endangerment Finding that ruled that greenhouse gases are a threat to human health and the environment, and thus broke the back of the U.S. climate-change regulatory framework. The announcement, written in a highly partisan and unscientific manner, reads as if it were written by the oil and gas lobby, which it probably was.

The Endangerment Finding was the legal basis that recognized greenhouse gases as a public-health threat, allowing the EPA to regulate the gases under the Clean Air Act. The finding meant that the EPA could set and enforce emissions standards and could defend their actions in court. That legal backbone shaped everything from power-sector rules to vehicle standards, and created the framework in which emissions reductions were expected. Without the finding, EPA authority is narrower, more fragmented, and far easier to challenge.

Meanwhile, as The Guardian pointed out this week, continued global warming could trigger an irreversible course of multiple climate tipping points and feedback loops, creating a hellish "hothouse Earth." In short, as ice, which reflects away much of the incoming solar heat, retreats and more of the underlying bedrock is exposed, the rock absorbs more heat and further melts the ice, which exposes more bedrock, which melts more ice, and so on and so forth in a feedback loop. A tipping point is when the system reaches a point where a feedback loop can't be avoided and may already be occurring in the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets. Permafrost, mountain glaciers, and the Amazon rain forest appear to be on the verge to tipping, and other potential tipping points include loss of polar sea ice, retreat of sub-Arctic forests, and collapse of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), the system of ocean currents that strongly influences global climate. 

Runaway feedback loops would lock the world into a climate far worse than the 2-3°C temperature rise the world is on track to reach. The climate would be very different than the conditions of the past 11,000 years, during which the whole of human civilization developed.

Human activities have massively upset the global balance of greenhouse gases. The planet has some buffering capacity for carbon imbalances, but the geological cycle for carbon is on the order of millions of years. We can't put tens of millions of years worth of CO₂ into the atmosphere over the span of a few centuries and expect the planet to be able to adapt without serious consequences. There's no way that isn't going to massively upset the ecological and chemical balances we rely on to keep us and everything around us alive.

Repealing the Endangerment Finding and effectively limiting the government's ability to restrict the continued emission of CO₂ is literally the worst thing to do at this fraught moment. The EPA's justification of their move claims the Finding was "massively unpopular" (it probably was among the oil and gas lobbyists influencing the agency), and that repeal would somehow save consumers billions of dollars and give them more choice (the choice to buy big, gas-guzzling vehicles that emit tons of carbon dioxide). 

That all seems colossally short sighted. An unlivable planet with a unstable climate is even more massively unpopular, and the costs associated with hurricanes, floods, droughts, and crop losses will dwarf the money consumers may potentially save in the short term.

It's a bad day for planet Earth.

One final note on the colossal stupidity of this decision. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in an interview that repealing the finding would boost the coal industry.  “CO₂ was never a pollutant,” he declared. “The whole endangerment thing opens up the opportunity for the revival of clean, beautiful American coal.”

"Clean coal" was a catch-all term for a range of potential technologies, none of which have yet been implemented, to burn coal without emitting the carbon to the atmosphere. You know, scrubbers, closed-loop systems, and so on. But somewhere along the line, the Stable Genius heard the term "clean coal," and mistook it for a term of endearment of coal as it is without those technologies. "Good, clean coal," he says wistfully as if it were cool, running water, and now his administration knows they can call the dirty fossil fuel "clean coal" without fear of contradiction.

 

The Numb Recall, 42nd Day of Childwinter, 526 M.E. (Helios): I spent (wasted, squandered, threw away) some five hours of my life today watching Pam Bondi testify before Congress today about the Epstein files. It's hard to imagine a more vile and nasty witness then Bondi as she responded to questions with personal insults, non sequiturs, and outright lies meant to flatter the Stable Genius. 

I recall Rachel Maddow once noting that the Stable Genius seems to like a little, let's say spice in his attorneys. Not just lawyers who will unquestioningly defend him but aggressive little weasels who will stick it a little extra hard to his opponents, who will walk away from the mildest little disagreement with blood on their hands. Hatchetmen, henchmen, backstabbers, and graverobbers. Bondi filled that role to a T today. Shrilly shouting and with her dyed blond hair and rhinoplastic nose, she was a textbook definition of white trash, the Real Housewives of Palm Beach Circuit Court. Imagine a female Kid Rock with a law degree.

Around three p.m., I couldn't take it any more, the sun had finally came out, and I went for a short, 4.5-mile Madison. I could have been doing that all along, I realized, rather than listening to her invective and lies all day. I hate these times and I can't stand the gooners, creeps, and swindlers that have taken over our government.

Christianity is Stupid Dept. (a random thought while walking): Jealousy is a most human of foibles, a psychological illness stemming from longing, clinging, and desire. Yet the Bible repeatedly describes its god as a "jealous God," a supreme being with the weakest of human weaknesses - "For you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealousy, is a jealous God" (Exodus 34:14); "You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God" (Exodus 20:5); "For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God" (Deuteronomy 4:24).    

The Ten Commandments, which couldn't even bother to forbid slavery or racism or child abuse, still has a whole commandment forbidding "coveting," which is a form of jealousy. The "jealous God" forbids his creations from jealousy, but otherwise encourages them to act like him. Just not that. At least with regard to thy neighbor's house, wife, and livestock. 

The jealous God also has another commandment, "You shall have no other gods before me." Who are these other gods of which the jealous God is jealous? I thought the Bible taught there was only one god - nowhere does it mention other gods. Is he jealous of imaginary gods? 

The Buddha taught that our suffering is caused by clinging and desire. Jealousy is considered a particularly toxic form of clinging, causes suffering to both the person and the object of jealousy, and leads to delusion. The Christian God is obviously suffering, as manifest by his jealousy and delusion that there are other gods, and as a result his followers suffer as much as any abused spouse of a jealous partner.

 

The Infant Footprint, 41st Day of Childwinter, 526 M.E. (Electra): Well, now I know that the FBI's seizure of my 2020 election ballot was initiated by a Kurt Olsen, the Stable Genius' Director of Election Security and Integrity and a leading election denier in the administration. The search warrant relied heavily on claims about the Fulton County ballots that have been widely debunked. An affidavit on which the search warrant was based referenced several debunked conspiracy theories including arguments about fraudulent and duplicate absentee ballots, election machine tabulator tapes, and missing ballot images.

However, there was no allegation of a foreign interference in the election, which makes it all the more unusual that Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence, was present when they seized my ballot. Her agency’s role in elections extends only to foreign interference, but the Stable Genius reportedly told her to investigate the 2020 vote. “You go do that," he told her. "You get it done.” The day after the search, she arranged a call with FBI agents in which the Stable Genius praised them and thanked them for their service.

Last week, the Stable Genius called for the Republican Party to “nationalize” elections. He also said that “the federal government should get involved” in elections, and cited a list of cities in which he claimed there was voter fraud in 2020. “Take a look at Detroit,” he said. “Take a look at Pennsylvania. Take a look at Philadelphia. You go take a look at Atlanta.” There is no evidence of widespread fraud in any of those places but his words remind me of The Talking Heads' Life During Wartime: "Heard about Houston? Heard about Detroit? Heard about Pittsburgh, PA?"

I'm waiting for his goons to show up on my doorstep to ask me to confirm that my mail-in ballot was really mine. "Are you aware that someone submitted a ballot with your name voting for Joe Biden?," they'll ask. "You did mean to vote for the Stable Genius, didn't you?," the armed goons will ask. 

Fascism is here, boys and girls. This ain't no party, this ain't no disco, this ain't no fooling around.

 

Day of the Mists, 40th of Childwinter, 526 M.E. (Deneb): "Love is a beach, there is no shore to its opening." - Bad Bunny

 

The White Sun, 39th Day of Childwinter, 526 M.E. (Castor): It's one thing to live in "interesting" times and another to live in "exciting" times. But we appear to be living in "ridiculous" times where I have to check multiple sources to ascertain that a headline isn't, in fact, from The Onion. I literally could not believe that even the Stable Genius would post a meme as blatantly racist as the notorious video he posted last week until I saw it referenced in the NY Times, The Guardian, and whatever they're calling MSNBC now, my triangulation of sources for confirming the veracity of current events.    

Not The Onion: "Rightwing Critics Blame Mamdani as New York Snow Fails to Melt" (The Guardian). Actor Debra Messing complained, “The streets are a disaster. It hasn’t snowed in 5 days and the streets still haven’t been cleared.” Michael Rapaport posted a video showing snow on a New York street, and said, “I need to know who’s responsible for the dog doo doo” (um, dogs?). The New York Post noted, “The snow is still here," and "we’ve got record cold temperatures.” Sadly, The Guardian needed to point out that the mayor has little power over the temperature of the city. 

As a point of fact, some 2,500 sanitation workers worked 12-hour shifts to remove snow and collect garbage after the storm, and the issue wasn't just the snowfall but the lingering cold. Previous mayors have also been criticized for their response to NYC snow - in 2014, Bill de Blasio was accused of neglecting the wealthy Upper East Side in favor of Brooklyn and Queens, and Michael Bloomberg faced criticism when some streets went unplowed for days following 20 inches of snow.

Separately, in not a Not-The-Onion headline, the Guardian reported that US companies are falsely blaming artificial intelligence for job losses. The unsurprising actual reasons for the layoffs include greed, i.e., maximizing profits, the effects of the Stable Genius' tariffs, and possibly over-hiring during the covids. In short, the CEOs are engaged in “AI-washing.”

In 2025, AI was cited as a reason for more than 54,000 layoffs. Amazon explained they trimmed staff because AI, "the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the internet," requires them to "be organized more leanly.“ Hewlett-Packard said the company will use AI to “improve customer satisfaction and boost productivity," which also requires the company to cut 6,000 people in the next years. Duolingo announced that the company will “gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle.”

However, a January report from a market research firm notes that while companies can use AI to replace people working in call centers and technical writing, apps don't currently exist that can replace most other occupations and probably won’t anytime soon. They project that only 6% of US jobs will be automated by 2030.

The report noted that tariffs were cited as the reasons for fewer than 8,000 layoffs, a fraction of the number attributed to AI. However, there's a reluctance for companies to say anything negative about the economic impacts of the Stable Genius' policies due to fear of retribution, but by saying that the layoffs are due to efficiencies created by AI, they avoid a potential confrontation. 

Companies also over-hired during the pandemic due to low interest rates and talent wars, but rather than admit errors, CEOs blame "right-sizing" on AI. 

 

The Doubletake Walk, 38th Day of Childwinter, 526 M.E. (Betelgeuse): Met the daughter and son-in-law for brunch today. Ran into Atlanta traffic both going there and coming back. Later, walked a 6.8-mile Quincy. 

Completed the NY Times Saturday crossword puzzle in 33:22. Solved today's Wordle in six attempts (phew!). Reached the Genius level on the Spelling Bee with 34 words worth 166 points.

I'm going to relax this evening by watching the last couple episodes of Fallout, Season 2, and playing The Outer Worlds 2.    

I'm in a Faulkner phase right now in my reading, so I'll get in a couple of chapters of As I Lay Dying before bed.

How was your day?

 

Quickglint Sidelong Blur, 37th Day of Hagwinter, 526 M.E. (Aldebaran): Did you see that racist video the Stable Genius posted to his vanity social media? You know the one - I'm not going to share it here or even describe it in detail, other than to say it's a derogatory AI image of Barack and Michelle Obama.  

The video was among more than 60 posts and reposts the Stable Genius uploaded during a flurry of activity between 10:36 p.m. and 12:25 a.m. last night. Initially, his staff and loyalists said it was just a joke, "characters from The Lion King," and that people were over-reacting. Then, they had to admit that it really was some racist bullshit and took it down, and claimed the Stable Genius didn't post it, some unidentified staffer had.

I don't believe that alibi for a second, and encourage you to ask yourself honestly - which is more likely, that the Stable Genius posted a racist video among for flurry of tweets and mind farts late at night, or that a staffer thought he was helping the cause by posting it under the S.G.'s name?

I've worked for some very conservative, very Republican companies in my life, but anywhere I've worked, if someone had posted that from a company computer or on company time or in any way affiliated with the company, they'd have been fired. Immediately, no questions asked.

This will all be forgotten in a week as we move on to the next outrage, and there will be the next outrage, and then another and another, just as there has been for the past twelve months. How much more of this are you willing to take, America? Tided of "winning" yet? 

The Stable Genius is a hateful, demented, racist old fool, and it's time he was removed from the Executive Branch as expeditiously as possible for the good of this country and the American people.

 

Second Ocean,  36th Day of Childwinter, 526 M.E. (Helios): We're halfway through Childwinter! Six six-day weeks down, six (and a day) to go. We're three dozen days into the season and the year, and by the logic of the New Revised Universal Solar Calendar, today is not Third Dozen but Second Ocean. 

Weird day. I awoke this morning from anxiety dreams that my car wouldn't start, even though I started it the Monday after the deep freeze of the previous weekend and then ran it for 30 minutes to recharge the battery, and then started and drove it again this week to pick up groceries and pharmaceutical for Eliot, my cancer cat. 

Premonitions being what they are, however, my car didn't start today. The battery just totally died - didn't even try to pretend to turn over. I had to call a jump-start company ($75) who got me started although not without difficulty and I drove my car on the charge from their jump straight to the Lexus dealer who sold me my battery and they replaced it for free (people scoff at me for driving a Lexus, thinking I'm obsessed with appearance and social status, but service like that and the fact that my car is still running after 16 years is the real reason).  However, the whole ordeal, from first trying to start my car to getting back home with the new battery, took over four hours. 

Which left barely enough time to shit, shower, and shave, scarf down a quick dinner, feed Eliot the cancer cat, and drive down to East Atlanta Village to see a show at The Earl. It was my first time back to The Earl in six years - the last show I saw there (the singer Mattiel) was in early February 2020 right as the covids were crashing down on us. 

The band Rich Ruth opened promptly at 8:00 pm and then the headliners, Taper's Choice, took the stage just a mere few minutes past 9:00. They played a nearly 1¾-hour set, but I still managed to make it home only a little past 11:00 pm.

Weird Day. Ocean days are simply the oddest.

The Laden Bough, 35th Day of Childwinter, 526 M.E. (Electra): “When it is cold, let the cold kill you,” Tozan advised. Tozan (807–869), also known as Dongshan Liangjie, not only felt that the cold needn't be avoided, but advised something useful, something practical, to do with the cold - use it and practice with it to kill the ego-self that clung to its preferences.   

"When cold and hot come," Zen Master Dogen (1200-1253 AD) advised, "let go." He cryptically added, "Eyebrows totally fallen out, your empty name is killed."  Eyebrows falling out usually implies lying, the ever-helpful Shohaku Okumura explains, sort of like modern western culture associates lying with one's nose growing longer. But Dogen may have been saying that the eyebrows fell out because of our delusions about the cold, but once the eyebrows are gone, we have nothing left to lose and have to face the truth of our real self. 

The second of the Buddha's four noble truths states that our suffering is caused by our attachments and desires. It stands then that if we cling to a desire to change things that are outside of our control, we will suffer. Cold weather is an external event outside of our direct control, but our perception of the cold is not. The Stoic philosopher Epictetus (50 – 135 AD) advises us to accept the weather as it is rather than wish it were different. The Buddha would not have disagreed. 

Tozan was the cold as an opportunity to let go of the ego-self. Epictetus saw it as an opportunity to training for future challenges. "Neither a bull nor a noble-spirited man comes to be what he is all at once," he wrote in The Discourses (Book 1, Chapter 2.32). "He must undergo a hard winter training and prepare himself and not propel himself rashly into what is not appropriate for him." 

Epictetus' teacher Musonius Rufus (25 – 100 AD) said, "It is not good to be entirely without experience of cold and heat, but one ought in some degree to feel the cold in winter and likewise the heat in summer and to seek shade as little as possible."

The Buddha, the Stoic philosophers, and the Zen masters all seem to agree that patience and acceptance are keys to enduring the cold, and that denial of the changing seasons is not only unhelpful but makes things worse. Dogen once cited a Chinese proverb:  

In the jade palace, the kingfisher builds his nest

But the gold palace offers no shelter for the mandarin duck.

The kingfisher represents focus, patience, and at the right moment, swift and decisive action. It suggests a calm, mindful, and accepting state. Mandarin ducks, seen floating on the water in gardens and moats, following the currents and tides wherever they may lead, are associated with the transient nature of life. The jade and gold palaces, obviously, are happiness, success, nirvana. Contentment, the proverb is saying, comes to the patient and focused, and those caught up in the samsara of day-to-day existence will not find peace. 

To face the cold, as well as the other challenges of life, we should adopt a calm and accepting mind, embrace them as opportunities to strengthen our resolve and practice, and avoid trying to change or wish away those things which are beyond our control. I'll try to keep that in mind when the next cold front comes through here next week.

We'll let Dogen have the last word:

In spring hundreds of flowers, in autumn the clear moon,
In summer a cool breeze, and in winter the white snow,
If your mind is free of vanity, then every season is fine.

 

Plains of Paradise, 34th Day of Childwinter, 526 M.E. (Deneb): The cold is gone and today I walked an 8.4-mile Van Buren even though I missed my previous walk due to last weekend's single-digit wind-chill temperatures. Today's high temperature was about 55°, which felt quite comfortable after the previous days of teens and twenties. In the here and now of the present moment, there is no cold, and this goony bird forgot about building nests and frolicked in the warmth. 

There was a time of cold and a time of suffering and then there was a time of no cold and no suffering. There will be a time of heat and a time of suffering, and there will be a time of no heat and no suffering. Tozan suggests we meet the cold and shivering  as well as the heat and sweating with acceptance of those transient moments and leave the suffering behind. Epictetus just entered the conversation and agrees with Tozan.

Meanwhile, it's still sinking in that after the raid on Fulton County and seizure of the 2020 election ballots, Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard have my name, my date of birth, my social security number, and know for whom and how I voted. What they're going to do with that information is up to them and the Stable Genius, but I suspect I'll experience their retribution one way or the other, either directly or indirectly.   

Day of the Voyage, 33rd of Childwinter, 526, M.E. (Castor): Every time it gets bitter cold, I reflexively revisit Tozan's "Go to a place that's neither hot nor cold." I did it last November, when the first cold blast of Hagwinter hit the American South. I did it two winters ago. I did it way back in 2010. The problem with maintaining a blog for 20+ years is that the ruts my mind is stuck in become so painfully obvious. Yet when the temperatures aren't uncomfortably cold or hot, I don't think very much about Tozan or his advice. 

Zen Mater Eihei Dogen (1200-1253 AD) wrote a poem in apparent response to Tozan's advice:

How can the three realms and ten directions be all one color?

Who would discuss the difference between human and heavenly beings?

Do not convey talk of birds suffering in the cold.

The lake with no heat of anxiety is on the snowy mountain.

Contemporary Zen Master Shohaku Okumura (1948-present) helpfully explains that "birds suffering in the cold” is a reference to an allegorical pair of birds in the Himalayas. In the night, when it is extremely cold, the female bird repeatedly complains, “Cold is killing me. Cold is killing me.” Her mate replies, “Let’s make a nest tomorrow. Let’s make a next tomorrow.” However, when the sun rises and it becomes warm, they forget the plan of making a nest, and just enjoy the daytime. When night comes again, they complain in the same way. They repeat this every day and every night though their entire lifetime.

Whenever the temperature drops below the mid-20s here in Atlanta and my furnace can't keep my house as warm as I'd like, I turn to Tozan. "Help me make it through the night," I beg. "Give me some words of wisdom to help me endure this bitter cold." Spring comes as it always does and I need the Wikipedia page to even remember who Tozan was.

The "three realms and the ten directions" in Dogen's poem is a poetic reference to the entire universe throughout space and time. It's not all one color and we can't expect it to always have the same comfort-zone temperature in all places at all times. It is a basic Buddhist understanding that there is no difference between human and heavenly beings. Depending upon how we look at it, life can be either heaven or hell. When they suffer with cold, those birds complain and make up their minds to build a nest where they can sleep comfortably, but when the sun rises and it becomes warm, they forget about the cold night and their plan to make a nest is never carried out. Dogen ends the poem by pointing out that despite the bitter cold, in the same snowy mountains where the birds live there also supposedly exists a mythological lake that was thought to be the paradise source of all rivers in the world. Warmth in the cold, cold in the warmth.

It's 41° outside today. My furnace is easily able to keep me comfortably warm and I've stopped dripping my faucets. The storm has passed for now. Time for this goony bird to forget about Tozan until the polar vortex fails again and another mass of cold Arctic air spills over the North American continent.

 

Day of Domain, 32nd of Childwinter, 526 M.E. (Betelgeuse): Philosophy can't keep you warm in winter. You can't skin it and wear it, you can't burn it, you can't sit beside it and feel the warmth emanate off of it. It's truly worthless in the cold. 

But still, it does put things in perspective. The weather's never hot nor cold; hot or cold is our experience of different temperature ranges. Given time, we can acclimate to different temperatures - last night's official (NWS) low of 19° F might seem downright balmy to an Inuit or an Antarctic explorer. I've seen people sweat and complain when the temperature gets up into the 80s, although here in Georgia anything below 90 is considered "mild."

I like temperatures in the 90s. I'm comfortable in the 90s. I wasn't comfortable last night. 

It's perfectly acceptable but not quite correct to say, "it's cold outside." People understand what you're saying, which is the whole point of communication, but what is that "it?" "It's" not cold - you're cold. We can say "a cold air mass" has moved into the region, but it that air mass is only cold relative to the temperature of other air masses and our 98.6° bodies. A 19° air mass is incredibly warm relative to the unimaginably cold zero-degree Kelvin temperature of interstellar space. In fact, there's virtually no difference between a 19° F air mass and a 91° F air mass compared to the 0° K cold of outer space. 

Those thoughts didn't make me feel any warmer last night.

My furnace has been running virtually non-stop for some 36 hours now, and the thermostat still hasn't caught up to the setting. The temperature in the house never dropped below 70 last night, at least while I was awake, but there was a chill in the air that felt far below 70°. To prevent the pipes from freezing, I let every faucet in the house drip overnight, and they're still dripping now. I started the car today and the battery didn't want to turn over, although with some coaxing I finally got it to start, and I let the car idle for a half hour to warm the engine and charge the battery.

No, there's no "hot" or "cold" other than our own response and disposition toward the temperature, but there's also no escape from the sensations of "hot" and "cold." "Hot" and "cold" is just the universe being the universe and our experience of "hot" and "cold" is just us being ourselves. 

That thought still didn't make me feel any warmer last night, and it wasn't supposed to.  But it did help me understand that what I was shivering through was just my reaction to things as they are, and instead of fruitlessly wishing things were different perhaps I should just observe them and myself, put an extra blanket on the bed, make sure my cat Eliot was comfortable, and wait for the sensation to pass. 

Zen and Stoicism agree that suffering exists and also that it's mainly self-imposed. Zen's solution is a sort of annihilation of the ego-self through the practice of meditation; Stoicism's solution is through application of logic. My approach is contemplative stoicism, a bit of both.

Update: At 4:04 pm, the outdoor temperature reached 35°, my indoor thermostat finally caught up to its setting, and the furnace finally got like a five-minute break.

 

The Lost Island, 31st Day of Childwinter, 526 M.E. (Aldebaran): T.S. Eliot is full of shit. Give me April any day - it's January that's the cruelest month. The throat of winter is upon us, and the barren barley fields are swaying like mad in the gusty, 35-mph winds. 

It snowed in Atlanta this morning (Atlanta!) although it didn't stick and only came down for less than an hour. But still, it's cold outside: 25° F with a wind-chilled feels-like temperature of 8°. It's supposed to drop down to 17° overnight, and I can only guess what the wind will make that feel like.

It's colder than the furnace in this drafty old house can keep up with. I turned the thermostat up to 75, but after running non-stop all day, it's only up to 73° in here, and away from the thermostat and the airducts it feels a lot cooler.  No telling how far down the inside temps will drop tonight. I'm dripping water from all my faucets to reduce the chances of pipes freezing. 

Worse, it's not forecast to warm up anytime soon. It will remain frigid all next week, and we won't see seasonal temperatures until at least next weekend. And I saw a not-at-all encouraging long-term prediction that it will stay colder than normal until well into the spring. 

I don't like the cold. Sure, hot, humid weather can be uncomfortable, but the cold is downright painful. And while heat stroke can be a risk if you don't know how to manage yourself in the Georgia sun, hypothermia and the cold carry a greater risk of death. 

I'll get through it. I'll find my Zen space that's neither hot nor cold, and I'll take solace in the fact that today is the last day of January and we're almost halfway through Childwinter.   

Tozan said, “When it is cold, let it be so cold that it kills you.” However, that doesn't mean you should just go ahead, accept your fate and die. The "you" that the cold should kill is the ego-self with its preferences and biases and desires. Tozan is reminding us that what we call "cold" is just the world as it is - the climate doesn't experience "cold," it's us who suffer the cold. Today feels cold, this summer it will feel hot, one day it will rain, and another it won't. Flowers, while cherished, fade, and weeds, although despised, thrive. This is the way the universe works, whether we like it or not.

There's no escaping the cold or the heat, but we can let go of our preferences and accept that this is the way things are. Ditto sickness, old age, and death. Tomorrow when you're old and your mouth is paved with gold you begin to feel the cold inside. 

But we don't need to give up. Go ahead and build a fire or crank up the thermostat when you're cold, take your medicine and get some exercise when you're old and sick. But we don't need to increase our own suffering by adding on our personal preferences as to the way we want things to be.

This is the meeting of two arrows in midair ("hitting a bullet with a bullet"), where Zen and Stoicism come together. In the cold. In January. Right here, right now.

 

Structures of Earth, 30th Day of Childwinter, 526 M.E. (Helios): A warming climate increases the surface temperature of lakes, oceans, and other water bodies. As the waters warm, the solubility of oxygen decreases, organisms die, and the decay of organic matter leads to further oxygen depletion. The higher temperatures also increase evaporation from water bodies, resulting in increased precipitation. This causes higher rates of weathering of rocks and higher concentrations of phosphorous and other nutrients in rivers. The nutrients further lower oxygen levels in deep waters due to increased respiration by organisms.

Anthropogenic climate change is currently warming the planet and depleting the oxygen in rivers, lakes, and oceans, but back in geologic time, volcanism was the culprit in raising global temperatures and oxygen-deprived oceans. The CO₂ released during volcanic outgassing caused global warming at various times in the geologic past, the cascading effects of which resulted in anoxic oceans. 

The late Cambrian Steptoean positive carbon isotope excursion (SPICE) coincided with trilobite extinctions and global ocean anoxia. Geologists recently analyzed sedimentary rocks at four sites across the central Missouri basin representing a range of Cambrian water depths. Their data indicated that during the SPICE, increased phosphate was available in the surface ocean, resulting in persistent oxygen-poor conditions in shallow seas. They inferred that the elevated phosphorus levels increased biological activity in the surface ocean, sustaining oceanic anoxia until the feedback was broken by rising atmospheric oxygen levels. The study identifies phosphorus as a key driver of late Cambrian oxygen depletion in the ocean and a cause of the trilobite extinction.

Some people think that CO₂-related global climate change is a relatively new concept, something dreamed up by Al Gore and Greta Thunberg. But geologists have been studying the effects of CO₂ and other greenhouse gases on the climate for decades - I learned back in the 1970s that the Eocene was the warmest Epoch in the Cenozoic, and we know this by both the fossil evidence and the high levels of atmospheric CO₂ trapped in the sediments. The global average atmospheric CO₂ concentration is currently about 422 ppm, continuing the rapid, long-term upward trend from pre-industrial levels of about 280 ppm. However, CO₂ levels during the Eocene CO₂ concentrations were approximately 1,400 ppm and the average temperature was about 86° F with little temperature gradient from pole to pole. Today, the global average is about 57° F with significant latitudinal variation. 

So it came as no surprise to me to hear concern decades later that man might be monkey-wrenching our planet with our profligate CO₂ emissions.

 

Acrid Takeover, 29th Day of Childwinter, 526 M.E. (Electra): Acrid - having an irritatingly strong and unpleasant taste or smell. Takeover - to assume control or possession, to become dominant. Example - The FBI's seizure of election ballots from 2020 in Atlanta yesterday left a bitter and unpleasant taste in the mouths of Georgia citizens appalled by the acrid takeover.  

As you've no doubt heard, the FBI executed a search warrant yesterday at an election center in Fulton County, seizing ballots in a significant escalation of the administration’s continued efforts to overturn the Stable Genius' 2020 defeat in Georgia.

This affects me personally - I care because my mail-in ballots from that covid-sodden year-of-the-plague 2020 are probably among the ballots seized. The FBI has my five-year-old votes and my voter's registation information. Infuriatingly, the only reason the ballots still exist and weren't destroyed after two years as per state law is because of private lawsuits (Favorito v. Wan, and Jeffords v. Fulton County) by MAGA zealots that have been lingering on for years, and a judicial order that the ballots be preserved as evidence in the suits.

Inexplicably, Russian asset Tulsi Gabbard, the wildly unqualified Director of National Intelligence, was present at the Fulton County raid. Senator Mark Warner of Virginia pointed out there are only two reasons why Tulsi would be at the raid. “Either Director Gabbard believes there was a legitimate foreign intelligence nexus," he tweeted, "in which case she is in clear violation of her obligation under the law to keep the intelligence committees ‘fully and currently informed’ of relevant national security concerns — or she is once again demonstrating her utter lack of fitness for the office that she holds by injecting the nonpartisan intelligence community she is supposed to be leading into a domestic political stunt designed to legitimize conspiracy theories that undermine our democracy.” He further pointed out that “either is a serious breach of trust that further underscores why she is totally unqualified to hold a position that demands sound judgment, apolitical independence, and a singular focus on keeping Americans safe.”

The Stable Genius has been obsessed with his loss in Georgia in 2020 (good). However, the ballots have been tabulated and retabulated, counted and recounted, electronically and manually, and subject to multiple lawsuits. Georgia and Fulton County officials and election experts have repeatedly confirmed the vote and have refuted assertions of election fraud and no evidence of fraud was ever presented under oath in court. 

Seizing ballot boxes and voting machines is a classic tactic straight out of the totalitarian playbook. It's the behavior of the Maduros, the Mussolinis, and the Putins of the world - in other words, right up the Stable Genius' alley.  

Friendly reminder that the Constitution clearly and explicitly puts voting laws and procedures squarely in the hands of the States, not the federal government. I don't trust Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, the FBI, or anyone in the Stable Genius' administration with my vote and my voter registration information. I'm appalled that they this information - not only who I cast my ballot for, but my address, date of birth, and all the other sensitive information in the registry. I don't trust that they won't do exactly what they're insinuating Fulton County's done - namely, destroy ballots, generate false ballots, and alter existing ballots - and also use my personal information for retribution purposes. 

Hands off my ballots, Tulsi! Hands off, Kash! Hands off, FBI! Hands off, Stable Genius! And to paraphrase Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey, "Get the fuck out of Fulton County!"

 

Day of Drifts, 28th of Childwinter, 536 M.E. (Deneb): I hate 2026. I hate its cold, frigid weather. I hate this year's extrajudicial executions by federal agents in Minneapolis.  I hate our government's Venezuelan adventures earlier this month. I hate my grocery bills and the rising cost of everything. This year sucks.

Okay, got that out of my system. Nothing is all bad or all good - there must be something positive in this woe begotten year, so let me think. . . I saw a couple good movies on Netflix, but they were made and released in 2025 (or earlier) so they're not really something good from this year. Some of my favorite sports teams won some of their games and the New England Patriots are going to the Superbowl, but I recognize that those are "good" events only relative to myself and that for every win I celebrate someone else is lamenting a loss. I guess the best part of 2026 so far has been Alex Honnold topping the 1,667-foot Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taiwan - no one other than a complete psychopath was cheering for the skyscraper. 

I could look at it existentially and say, "Well, at least I'm still alive," but in a year like this, I'm reminded of the old Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times."  

The best part of being dead is you no longer have to say, "I wish I were dead." The best part of being alive is you can still say, "I wish I were dead."

 

Day of Barren Swarm, 27th of Childwinter, 526 M.E. (Castor): "If you white men had never come here, this country would still be like it was. It would be all pure here. You call it wild, but it wasn’t really wild, it was free. Animals aren’t wild, they’re just free. And that’s the way we were. You called us wild, you called us savages. But we were just free! If we were savages, Columbus would never have gotten off the island alive." - Leon Shenandoah, former Tadodaho of the Grand Council of the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy.

The fascist takeover of the U.S. government, the militias in our cities kidnapping people and murdering citizens, the kleptocracy, the corruption, and the abrogation of civil rights is the karmic consequence of two and a half centuries of the existence of the United States of America. A country founded on the twin practices of genocide and slavery can't expect things to go well in the long run. 

But it's not completely our fault. To those white supremacists who laud European heritage and values, and who boast that all great ideas and progress stemmed from Europeans, I say that it was the European values that insisted on cleansing the continent of its indigenous people, and instituting slavery to spur productivity and profits. The sins for which we're paying the karmic price now were the sins of the European monarchies and not the American colonialists, although the colonists eventually took to them with a disturbing passion.

Acolytes of the Stable Genius say, with their tongue only slightly in their cheek, that a little bit of dictatorship may not be a bad thing, and maybe we do need a king to get things done around here. But Western civilization has tried it with royal kings and queens before, and it wound up with endless wars between competing monarchs, not only militarily but economically as well.

England and France and Spain and Portugal and Rome and others had been competing for domination for centuries before the discovery of the New World, each kingdom convinced of their absolute moral and spiritual superiority, each determined to see their rivals perish and fail. The New World simply presented a new sphere of competition, as well as a source for raw materials to further the kingdoms' ambitions. England in particular saw its North American colonies as nothing but vassal states to grow crops, mine ores, fell wood for the ambitions of the King, and to consume the goods and pay tribute to its sovereign overlord. Spain saw the continent as an open land ripe for plundering and looting. The other kingdoms were no better.

The fact that indigenous people were already living on the new continent was merely an inconvenience to the competing monarchies, an obstacle to their imperial goals. Killing, looting, raping, and kidnapping the natives was considered the divine right of the superior nation, so if the presence of the indigenous got in the way of their goals, they were to simply be eliminated, and if they, god forbid, fought back, they were to be exterminated.

The Portuguese, having taken the lead in the exploration of West Africa, were able to take over the Arab trade of African slaves, and the New World, which needed labor to raise crops and do all that farming, mining, and felling, was simply a new market for their new trade. It was the English and Spanish who introduced slavery to these shores, with the Portuguese aiding and abetted the practice not to mention forcing an astonishing number of Africans to relocate to Brazil.

The colonists went along with the royal competition, including the genocide and the slavery, until it was no longer in their interest and they declared their independence, only to continue the genocide and the slavery on their own. And so here we are now, four centuries after 1619 and two and a half after 1776, paying the karma for those dirty European kings on their filthy continental thrones.                           

"Our religion," Shenandoah said about the Iroquois and other indigenous nations, "is all about thanking the Creator. That’s what we do when we pray. We don’t ask Him for things. We thank Him. We thank Him for the world and every animal and plant in it. We thank Him for everything that exists. We don’t take it for granted that a tree is just there. We thank the Creator for that tree. If we don’t thank Him, maybe the Creator’ll take that tree away... We are made from Mother Earth and we go back to Mother Earth. We can’t “own” Mother Earth. We’re just visiting here. We’re the Creator’s guests."

If only the "superior" Europeans were that enlightened, we might not be in the mess we see today.

 

The Crescent Heart, 26th Day of Childwinter, 526 M.E. (Betelgeuse): It's cold.

The winter storm has passed and with minimal damage here in Atlanta. Other places can't say the same,  and I extend my deepest condolences to those without power or who suffered other misfortunes from the cold snow and ice. 

But now that it's gone, it left behind some bitter cold temperatures - the high temperature today (38°) occurred at midnight and dropped down to 23° as the night progressed. It was only above 32 for about an hour or two this afternoon but blustery winds made it feel even colder and it's forecast to drop down to 14° overnight. It was so cold today, I didn't take my alternating-day walk, even though it's a walking day 

This drafty old house, this pile of bricks on a hill, can't keep up with temperatures that low. The heat works fine down to about the mid/upper 20s, but below that the furnace just runs and runs but the inside temperatures drop down into the 60s, with noticeably colder spots in some nooks and crannies around the house.

This has happened before and I've gotten past it, but this year the cold is expected to last at least a week, with next weekend even colder than today. “When it’s cold, become one with the cold," Tozan advised. I may not have a choice in the matter. "Let the cold kill you," Tozan continued. 

2026 sucks, man. We should ask for our money back - this year is defective.

 

The Ancient Village, 25th Day of Childwinter, 526 M.E. (Aldebaran): Although a massive winter storm tore through the Eastern United States yesterday and today, killing seven and leaving more than a million people without power, it wasn't much of a storm here in Atlanta. The temperature never dropped below freezing, and we had some overnight rain and rain all day today, but no snow, no accumulations of ice, and no extraordinary threat to life and property. I was correct - it turned out to be a big nothingburger ("Oh boy, right again!" - Laurie Anderson, Let x = x, 1982). 

The rain here finally ended at around sunset, and the temperature is expected to remain above freezing until about 3:00 am. It's going to be a cold week with with overnight lows in the 20s and even down to the teens by next weekend, and highs in the 30s and 40s. But with no rain or other precipitation in the forecast, I'm not worried.

Speaking of ice, they shot and killed another person in the streets on Minneapolis this weekend. Naturally, ICE, the DOJ, and the Stable Genius immediately labeled him an "domestic terrorist" and depicted him as a gun-wielding maniac attacking the occupying troops in Minnesota, but video clearly shows he was assisting an injured protester (he was a nurse) and holding a cell phone. I'm old enough to remember Kent State and when troops killing U.S. citizens on American soil was considered a bad thing ("I guess I just wasn't made for these times!" - Brian Wilson, I Just Wasn't Made for These Times, 1966).

 

 

Second Twelve, 24th Day of Childwinter, 526 M.E. (Helios): The twenty-fourth day of Childwinter and the Year 526 of the Modern Era is called Second Twelve. We're four six-day weeks into the year and it's already shit. 

I walked a 5.5-mile Monroe today and now I'm back home waiting for the icepocalypse to arrive. They predicted this thing like ten days ago, and the wait has become nerve-wracking. The latest forecast has the precipitation finally arriving in Atlanta at around 9:00 pm tonight, but the temperatures are expected to stay at or above 32° all night. So the latest forecast for here is no snow, no ice, no "significant accumulations of ice," and no "extraordinary threat to life and property." 

I might see a dusting of snow and some ice on the driveway when I get up tomorrow, and the roads will probably be slippery in the morning, but I have nowhere to go anyway. 

It will be a lot worse up in the North Georgia Mountains, where the higher elevations will be a bigger factor that the higher latitudes. Good luck and best wishes to them and everyone else affected by this "monster storm," even if it looks like Atlanta will be spared after all the dire warnings. 

At least I now have a good stockpile of prepared salads and a lifetime supply of peanut butter to last me through the weekend, and at least now I don't have to worry about losing power and missing tomorrow's Patriots game.

 

The Last Counsel, 23rd Day of Childwinter, 526 M.E. (Electra): I have to admit they have me spooked. "Monster winter storm threatens half of U.S., with at least 16 states declaring emergencies," reports The Guardian. "Snow, sleet and freezing temperatures are forecast for the south, midwest and east coast over the weekend."  

"America Readies to Hunker Down Ahead of Weekend Storm," according to the New York Times headline. "More than 160 million people from the Rockies to New England prepared for a combination of snow, ice and bitter cold through early next week. Cancellations mounted amid urgent forecast warnings." A subheading ominously declares, "Storm Poses Big Threats to Power Grids Across U.S." Even all the way down south here in Georgia, the governor has declared a state of emergency throughout the entire state ahead of the looming winter storm.

The Severe Weather Alert on my phone was even more blunt: "Extraordinary threat to life and property," it exclaimed. "Significant icing expected. Total ice accumulations between a quarter of an inch and an inch are expected." It warned of power outages and tree damage. Travel could be, not difficult, but in their words, impossible. "Abandon hope all ye who heed this warning," it practically said. 

Here's the thing, though: the actual forecast doesn't look that bad to me. It's been raining on and off, and I had to cancel my alternating day walk yesterday because of the precipitation. However, yesterday was relatively warm - three degrees above the norm for this time of year - and today is about the same with temperatures in the mid- to low 50s. Subfreezing temperatures aren't forecast to arrive here until Sunday morning, and then be back up above freezing by noon that same day.

The trouble will be those six or so hours on Sunday morning when the temperature is below 32° F and the precipitation probability ranges between 60 and 80%. That will form as ice on the ground and make the roads generally undriveable on Sunday. I'm  not planning on going anywhere that day.

No rain, snow, or sleet is expected after Sunday, and next week the forecast is sunny to partly cloudy. The sun and the highs in the 40s should melt the ice off the streets, but the evenings are forecast to be bitter cold, with lows in the 20s and even teens. The question is whether the days will be warm enough to melt the ice off the pavement before it refreezes in the evening.

My intuitive guess is that it will quickly melt and although Sunday will be awful and the roads unpassable, we'll be back to more or less normal by Monday afternoon, Tuesday at the latest. I've stocked up on enough food to last me well into next week. If the power goes out, I'll be out of luck in this drafty old house and the icy roads. It may be uncomfortable, although it won't be life threatening. 

The Stable Genius, one of the dumbest people in the U.S., cited the incoming storm as proof that climate change is a hoax. He posted, “Rarely seen anything like it before. Could the Environmental Insurrectionists please explain – WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GLOBAL WARMING???” I'm going to give him a pass on identifying people who understand climate science as "insurrectionists," not because he might be right but because I'm simply too fucking exhausted to make that argument right now. 

The storm, however, is the result not of DEI, wokeness, or immigration, but of a  mass of frigid air from the Arctic hitting warmer, moister air in the U.S. The cold Arctic air is usually confined above the Arctic Circle by the polar vortex, a stream of wind circling the northern portion of the globe. When the polar vortex weakens, the freezing Arctic air spills south into the U.S. 

The Arctic is heating up by as much as four times faster than the rest of the planet, with the elevated polar temperatures are altering the polar vortex. Among other things, the loss of sea ice in the Arctic that allowed intrepid sailors to pass through the Northwest Passage last summer is amplifying the heating that leads to polar vortex disruptions.

Also, a single winter storm in one region of one country says very little about long-term, global climate trends. The world is undeniably heating up, and winters in the U.S. are warming at a faster rate than other seasons, resulting in the loss of glaciers and changing seasonal norms.

By attacking climate science, branding environmentalists as "insurrectionists," and incorrectly identifying the incoming storm as evidence that climate change is some sort of hoax, the Stable Genius is misleading his loyal followers. Actions like this, on top of stripping government web sites of scientific findings on climate change, defunding climate research, layoffs at NOAA, the National Hurricane Center, and elsewhere, continued subsidies to the petroleum industry, opening formerly protected land to new oil drilling, and suppression of grants for solar and wind energy projects, not to mention the hostile takeover of Venezuela to control its oil reserves, the Stable Genius is aggressively making the world a worse place in which to live for the short-term economic benefits of a handful of already wealthy backers and petrochemical industrialists.

Day of Speaking, 22nd of Childwinter, 526 M.E. (Deneb): Listen to the words of the Stable Genius at a press briefing two days ago: 

"[I] signed an executive order to bring back mental institutions and insane asylums. We're going to have to bring them back. Hate to build those suckers, but you got to get the people off the streets. We used to have, when I was growing up, we had in my area in Queens, I grew up in Queens, we had a place called Creedmoor. Creedmoor. Did anybody know that? Creedmoor. It was a big . . . I said, "Mom, why are those bars on the building?" I used to play Little League baseball there at a place called Cunningham Park, I was quite the baseball player you wouldn't believe.

But I said to my mother, "Mom," she would be there always there for me, she said, "Son, you could be a professional baseball player." I said, "Thanks, mom." I said, "Why are those bars on the windows?" Big building, big, powerful building. It loomed over the park actually. She said, "Well, people that are very sick are in that building." I said, "Boy." I used to always look at that building and I'd see it was a big building, big, tall building, it loomed over the park. Now that I think of it, it was a pretty unfriendly sight, but I'll never forget.

I don't know if it's still there because they got rid of most of them. The Democrats in New York, they took them down and the people live on the streets now. And that's why you have a lot of the people in California and other places, they live in the streets. They took the mental institutions down. They're expensive. But I'd say, "Why does that building have those bars? Boy." It wasn't normal. You're used to looking at like a window, but this when you look at it, all this steel, vicious steel, tiny windows, bars all over the place. Nobody was getting out. It's called a mental institution. That was an insane asylum."

Listen to the words of the Stable Genius in Davos, Switzerland yesterday: 

"I'm helping Europe. I'm helping NATO, and until the last few days when I told them about Iceland, they loved me. They called me ‘daddy’ right, last time. Very smart man said, ‘He's our daddy. He's running it.’ I was like running it. I went from running it to being a terrible human being.

But now what I'm asking for is a piece of ice, cold and poorly located that can play a vital role in world peace and world protection. It's a very small ask compared to what we have given them for many, many decades. But the problem with NATO is that, we'll be there for them 100%, but I'm not sure that they be there for us. If we gave them the call, ‘Gentlemen, we are being attacked. We're under attack by such and such a nation.’ I know them all very well, I'm not sure that they'd be there. I know we'd be there for them. I don't know that they'd be there for us. So, with all of the money we expend, with all of the blood, sweat and tears, I don't know that they'd be there for us. They're not there for us on Iceland, that I can tell you. Our stock market took the first dip yesterday because of Iceland. So, Iceland has already cost us a lot of money."

For the record, he was apparently confusing Greenland with Iceland. Also for the record, after 9/11, NATO did come to our defense in both Afghanistan and Iraq. In Afghanistan, the United Kingdom lost 457 soldiers; Canada, 159; France, 90; Germany, 62; Italy, 53; Poland, 44; Denmark, 43; Spain, 35; Romania, 27; Netherlands, 25; Turkey, 15; Czech Republic, 14; Norway, 10; Estonia, 9; Hungary, 7; Latvia, 4; Slovakia, 3; Albania and Portugal, 2 each; and Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Lithuania, 1 each. Even countries that subsequently joined NATO but weren't members at the time of the Afghan operations came to our assistance and lost troops, including Sweden (5 casualties), Finland (2), and Montenegro (1). Similarly, NATO assisted the U.S. in Iraq, with the United Kingdom losing 179 soldiers;  Italy, 33; Poland, 30; Bulgaria, 13;  Spain, 11; Denmark, 7; Romania and Slovakia, 4 each;  Latvia, 3; Estonia and Netherlands, 2 each; and Hungary, Portugal, and the Czech Republic, 1 each. 

So there's our so-called leader, embarrassing us on the world stage in Davos, confusing Iceland and Greenland, and telling the leaders of countries that already sacrificed the lives of their own citizens to help us in two dubious military adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan that he didn't think he could count on them to assist the U.S. in a time of need. 

The 25th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States gives Congress the authority to declare the President unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. I have no confidence that they would do that and every confidence that they won't, but the Stable Genius is clearly unstable and unfit to lead this country.

Day of Awaking, 21st of Childwinter, 526 M.E. (Castor): The Buddha's first noble truth is the existence of suffering. Some people interpret this to mean "all is suffering" or "life is suffering," but I don't see it that way. We have moments of joy, of satisfaction and happiness, and we have moments of sadness, of dissatisfaction and pain. One does not negate the other, but it's the suffering for which we would like a cure.

The Buddha explained suffering as not getting what we want and associating with what we don't want. There are a lot of things with which I don't want to associate, including cancer, my old college roommate's old girlfriend (a nightmare), and car problems. Also, I could do without old age and death even as I recognize their inevitability. 

I once heard someone tell me about a woman here in Atlanta whose wealthy husband provided her with a new BMW every year. She was complaining, however, that financial times were somewhat harder this year, and although her husband still gave her a brand-new BMW this year, it wasn't a top-level M-class model but a lower-tier E- or 2-series car. That sounds shallow and superficial (and it is), but her suffering was real, even if self-imposed - she wasn't getting what she wanted and was suffering as a consequence. 

The Stable Genius wants to "own" Greenland. Never mind that the Greenlandic people have no interest in being "owned" by the U.S., or that it is a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, which does not consider the territory up for sale to anybody. Never mind that Denmark, a member of NATO,  has been fully accommodating to the U.S. with regard to military bases, and has said it will grant the US permission for more bases and additional troops, and would be glad to cooperate with mineral sales and extraction. The U.S., in short, could do almost anything within reason it wants in Greenland, it just can't own it.

And that's a BMW 228i that just doesn't satisfy the Stable Genius. A malignant narcissist and a full-blown megalomaniac, he simply can't accept "no" as an answer, and telling him he can't buy Greenland just makes him want it all the more. Like that ridiculous BMW lady, he's suffering because he isn't getting what he wants. His goal is ludicrous - it's arguably better to have full access to a territory without all the responsibilities that come with ownership. But someone said "no" to him, and his ego just cannot accept that.

So he's suffering, but the difference between his suffering and yours and mine is that he has full command of the U.S. military. And the nuclear launch codes. And a much lower resistance to disappointment and pain than like 99% of the human race. Combine that with limited intelligence and stunted maturity, and we  have a problem, and now we're all suffering due to the pervasive presence of a President with whom we don't want to associate.