Thus I despair

A nearly unreadable article in The Washington Post on Wed. titled  "2℃ Beyond the Limit" about Qatar in general, and specifically it's preparation for the 2022 FIFA World Cup (soccer to us) inspired this post. This event normally held in July will be held in November in Doha, as that is the "coolest" month. Here is recent data from the article:

The need to reschedule "became abundantly clear in late September, as Doha hosted the 2019 World Athletics Championships. It moved the start time for the women’s marathon to midnight Sept. 28. Water stations handed out sponges dipped in ice-cold water. First-aid responders outnumbered the contestants. But temperatures hovered around 90 degrees Fahrenheit and 28 of the 68 starters failed to finish, some taken off in wheelchairs."

Their "solution"  is to pick a cooler month and air condition open spaces.  They are cooling the outdoors where people are trying to live and work. In preparation for the 2022 event, they are constructing 8 (!!!!!!!) soccer stadiums. Truly this is an unconscionable use of carbon emitting construction in order to host crowds (emitting carbon to travel) to watch a game which could be played somewhere already capable of hosting this event.

I was unable to finish the article as is often the case when reading about our changing climate, degradation of our life raft, and aggressive denial and obstruction of (if not actual sabotage to) carbon reducing or removing activities.

Just a quicky to check in with my fans

I don't believe I have gone on record this week about my love for fall. Boyfriend and I had a very fallish jaunt to the coast in Little Guy last week. As it should be, the campgrounds are again available to SARF (school age rugrat free) adults. (BTW, built-in editor was OK with rugrat!). It was Oregon coastal glory: color in the trees, deep blue ocean, frothy white breakers, sunny cool days and crisp nights.

I was as happy as this feline to be enjoying a taste of my natural habitat: https://www.theweathernetwork.com/us/videos/gallery/snow-leopard-has-the-perfect-first-reaction-to-snow/sharevideo/6093844139001/most_popular

Another Oregonian enjoying the cool.      Photo by BF

Also adding to the bliss was no link to the wider world. Newspapers were indeed available, as was NPR radio, and I suppose some hot spots for we two smart phone antagonists. But we dodged all those hazards. We did have one odd incident. I needed to be under a down quilt (very light weight, duh) to be comfortable at 40 degree nights. This is a global oddity. I now inadvertently default to under-dressing for cooler days having lost some personal insulation. It is taking some time to believe that I might get chilly when it is well within my former preferred temp range (50 to 65). I rejoice that I am closer to the "NORM", as it tends to prevail outside my range of control. Within my range of control (my house and my car), I am finding that there IS such a thing as too cool, and too warm is scarcer. Zowie.

Fake news from The Washington Post

This did not happen. I have edited it for brevity, retaining my favorite parts (as the blog editor).

This did not happen, but it COULD have:

By Alexandra Petri, Columnist for The Washington Post

Our very stable genius

President Sauli Niinisto! Thank you for visiting the United States and President Donald J. Trump on the 100th anniversary of U.S.-Finland diplomatic relations. Can you spare a minute of your time to tell us what you thought so we can improve the experience for future visitors?

Please rate your visit on a scale from 1 to 5 stars.

3 stars

What were some highlights of your stay?

I enjoyed the museums very much. I visited several, and they were all well lit, clean and informative. I liked that they were free, just like the population is under democracy.

I do not think that either of those things should change. If possible, keep both aspects.

I also enjoyed the chairs. I sat on a chair that was large and bright yellow, with arms, and although the arms did not provide as much protection of my personal space as I had hoped and I briefly suffered a surprise touch upon the knee, it was not the chair’s fault.

Do you have any feedback as to how your stay could be improved?

Well, I have to say, I would perhaps have done certain things slightly differently. For instance, it was clear that President Trump had many things he wanted to get off his chest, primarily about someone named Adam Schiff, but also about the governor of California? I found this unseemly emotional outburst off-putting. I would not have asked him to stand there while I had an emotional outburst.

I do not understand why it was necessary for me to sit there silently like an Artek daybed (although even when they are silent, Artek daybeds make statements). He kept yelling about a perfect conversation, but if it was anything like the conversation we had, I would say it was not perfect. A perfect conversation, to us in Finland, is one in which the freedom of the press is respected and people do not shout, say inaccurate things about the European Union and give the press mean nicknames. We reserve this kind of saltiness for our licorice.

Also, I would say, it is embarrassing for a leader to hector his press and call them fake. It makes him look bad, and it is uncomfortable. It seemed as though this was the kind of thing you would want to save for later, when you were alone, after you were not trying to impress people anymore. Indeed, I started to wonder: Does he know that I am here? I am just sitting here like the "J" in “fjord”: I am there, but nobody thinks about me. I began to feel that I had blended into the chair, but then he placed his hand on my knee, so I knew I had not been forgotten.

In Finland, we are proud of our free press. The United States, too, should be proud. They should not let this man insult one of the things that should be a source of national pride. Does he do this to Tiffany lamps and the Grand Canyon?

I kept thinking, should I say something? Then the president yelled at a reporter for not directing his question to me, but when he did direct the question to me, the president interrupted and made it difficult for me to answer. On the whole, it was confusing.

I would say in the future, if the purpose of the visit is that you will be unexpectedly called upon to defend the European Union as an institution and then sit very still while the president does some personal yelling, you should specify this more clearly on the invitation so that a leader can decide for themself whether it is worth it to visit.

How likely are you to recommend the United States to a friend or colleague?

Not very.

Is there any other feedback you would like to leave?

I would like to tell Donald Trump to go to Helsinki.

Just to cheer myself up a little

The Weather Network out of Canada as you likely know by now, is a source of silly, amazing, and occasionally horrifying videos. I went looking for silly and/or amazing today.

For silly what I found was proof that I am not the only person attempting to defy the natural order of life on earth. Here is a truck driver challenging the physics of deep, moving water:
https://www.theweathernetwork.com/us/videos/gallery/semitruck-tempts-fate-crossing-flooded-roadway-it-doesnt-work-out/sharevideo/6091067556001/most_popular

For amazing look at this black hole simulation:
https://www.theweathernetwork.com/us/videos/gallery/mindbending-black-hole-simulation-appears-to-defy-reality/sharevideo/6090131246001/most_popular

And here is a partial (say, 5%) explanation of the week I just experienced regarding the chemistry of  human metabolism:
https://www.theweathernetwork.com/us/videos/gallery/the-temperature-is-dropping-so-get-ready-to-pack-on-a-few-pounds-its-scientific/sharevideo/6091068731001/most_popular


So here is a proof that I am not the stupidest driver out there, that the universe is definitely more interesting than whatever is cooking in Washington DC these days, and I am not 100% causing all of my diet woes as summer turns to fall. And damn it all, as I think I have said before:

I LOVE LOVE LOVE FALL 

https://giphy.com/gifs/6LbxewmUrp06A

Oh my goodness

First, my letter to the editor WAS published, however, under an entirely reversed headline. My point was most emphatically not : "Birthrate is Not the Problem". My most generous take is that 1) they were concerned that "fecundity" was too literate for the readership and 2) the entire thrust of my argument was too obscure for the editor. I suspect that the prior ownership of the Guard would not have treated this submission so poorly.

Viscount James Bryce

Second, I found a quote in a Slate article today that is instructive in today's drama. This quote comes from a book published in 1888, so I think it's potential for being part of today's "witch hunt" is vanishingly small.  The prophetic quote:

“Impeachment,” wrote British historian and ambassador Viscount James Bryce, “is the heaviest piece of artillery in the congressional arsenal, but because it is so heavy it is unfit for ordinary use. It is like a hundred-ton gun which needs complex machinery to bring it into position, an enormous charge of powder to fire it, and a large mark to aim at.”

Here is my take on impeachment activities during my lifetime:

• President Richard Nixon:    a large glowing mark
• President William Clinton:  a trivial tribal target
• President Donald Trump:     a radioactive threat to democracy

Don, he means you. 
 
The Three Key Questions of Impeachment House Democrats have pulled out the “hundred-ton gun.” By Laurence H. Tribe

More people, whatcha gonna do?

Today in the Register Guard there was an article on Page 1 highlighting some population and income data from the early 2019 mini census. But it is not until the page 8 continuation that a reduced birth rate was bemoaned as a threat to our economy.

On page 4 was an AP article on the greatest threat to our economy (and also life on earth): climate change progressing faster than previously anticipated.

I am sending this to the Guard's mailbag today. I have scant hope it will be published, but if so, I expect it will be followed by published opinion pieces wherein the fact of human impact on the earth is in no way linked to our ever increasing numbers and/or an argument for how capitalism (meaning economic growth) is the only solution to climate change.

Polar bear arrested in Paris in 2015. Sad.

"Again I read in a Gatehouse sourced article that a declining birth rate is a problem. If the earth needs more people to thrive, I have yet to read a single science based assertion of that fact. The earth is suffering from our fecundity, and our economies (as currently structured and narrowly defined as people buying stuff) benefit from population growth. I am reminded of the most cogent protest sign at the 2015 Global Climate March: "You can't have a [expletive deleted here] economy without a planet."

I so wish I had kept a copy of the sign. Here is one I did keep.

Yeah, it's Fall and I come alive. Deal with it.

I have been sleeping more normally, in other words, getting up no earlier than 4 am and falling asleep after 9 pm. I am slapping "normal" on this improvement and calling it good. Also, with mornings both lit and cool, I have been weeding my yard. Those who know me well should struggle back into your chair and hear me out. I still hate hate hate dirt under my fingernails, but stupid gloves help. Also, my psychic as well as physical energy levels are very high (psychic:fear and aggravation at all time record levels, including when my Mom was doing her worst at me and physical: duh, fall). Also I crafted a way to make weeding personally rewarding: I growl while pulling out noxious elements in our government (yard) and chortle while binning (impeachment, seat taking, firing, even battering (McConnell)). Most neighbors have already left for work, and I must conclude the rest are cowering behind their curtains. Fall, glorious fall.

The dumpster fire that is the legal process of attempting to exact proportional harm to the Opioid Pushers reminds me of my all time favorite Gahan Wilson cartoon. It has really stuck with me due to it's dark humor which I encountered reading Playboy magazine in high school (courtesy of Dad*).  In case you cannot read the sale signs: (Left) Iced Drink 5¢ and (Right) Iced Drink Antidote $1.00  ---or is it $100 ? I can't tell.

Here is why I sought it out, and actually paid $11 for a one-post license on my blog: the structure of the proposed settlement with Purdue Pharma includes the creation of a "public beneficiary trust" which would continue to sell Oxycontin and give away opioid treatment-related drugs that it's developing. The treatment drugs are still experimental and are not available. See the evil echo in the cartoon? Of course, the antidote will be "cheaper" to buy - excluding life altering costs.

*This is the back story on me, Dad, and Playboy.
While I never asked him why he gave me access, I think I know: he did not trust Mom to report that a woman's sexual pleasure is natural and to be enjoyed. Certainly Playboy was an imperfect view of women, but so was my Mom's living version.

As a side note I did have one uncomfortable Playboy interaction with Dad (Mom was in the room too) when I was telling him how funny I found Bill Cosby's piece on desperately seeking pussy as a youth. [I KNOW, I KNOW, yuck]. As I had never encountered this "euphemism" for a vagina  in my reading or peer interactions (I sussed out the meaning from context), I assumed this was his personal funny substitute word.  [In retrospect, using an actual slang word is MUCH less funny] Dad interrupted my enthusiastic gush with: "you DO know that is an actual term, don't you?" Oops. I did not lose my access, in fact, he was probably even more convinced I needed some schooling about the wider world. I did and still do.