My morning glory bush cutting surprised me with another flower this morning.
As it turned out I didn’t have to go visit baby boy Harrison on Sunday. Audra and her aunt were out doing some shopping and they stopped by on their way home. He’s really not as big as his birth picture made him seem, just a normal sized 8 pound newborn (that's dad in the background).
Yard work continues. So far I’ve cut back the lantana, the ginger, the shrimp plant, most the cosmos, the Mexican bird of paradise, the yellow bells, pruned five of the roses, some of the wild petunias, the philippine violets; hauling it over to the burn pile one garden cart full at a time. Still to go are the rest of the cosmos, five more roses, the confederate roses, the morning glory bush, and the banana trees and that's just in my yard. Ten petal anemones are starting to bloom (I took a picture but it's not in focus), the struggling little azalea I dug up and potted is putting out new growth.
I had planned to wait until the end of February to take the plants back outside but I may go ahead and take the rest of the ones in the house out this weekend.
We had a little excitement yesterday. When we got up Tuesday there was a white sedan parked in the driveway of the shop yard blocking access. I just figured it belonged to one of Robin’s friends that come stay with her now and then though they usually pull all the way in. Didn’t think anything more about it until Mikey showed up after work to work on one of his cars and he couldn’t get in. Turned out not one of Robin’s friends and one of the rear windows had been busted out. So we figured stolen car dumped here during the previous night. He called the sheriff who showed up, checked with various databases and yep, stolen car reported earlier in the day in Houston.
I got texts from two neighbors wanting to know what was up with all the police (three cars of sheriffs eventually showed up), some of the neighborhood kids came to see asking me if I was going to jail. No, sweetie, I’m not going to jail.
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Minnie this morning…is it safe?
No puppy, it is not safe. The destruction of our government and of what this country used to be is ongoing, a massive tidal wave of destruction and cold hearted cruelty not only to the undocumented residents but of our black and brown and female citizens who no matter how capable, talented, educated, deserving, or highly qualified, they no longer deserve their jobs or recognition for their work and accomplishments simply because they aren't white men.
Much of what Trump and Musk and their republican enablers are doing is illegal but since they own both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court and the Department of Defense and are purging the Department of Justice and the FBI so only loyalists to Trump remain, the only recourse to stop them is the courts and that takes time. By the time the lawsuits make their way through the system it will be too late, the damage will already be done; agencies dismantled, departments shut down, employees let go, projects ended.
Elon Musk and his hackers, unelected private citizens of an unofficial and not congressionally recognized ‘department’, have been given unfettered access to the Federal payment system, one of whom, I read, has been made an admin who can make whatever changes or deletions he wants. Even if it is 'read only' like they claim that does not stop them from downloading or copying any file they want. Musk seems to think that he and he alone has the authority to authorize payments regardless of what Congress appropriated the funds for. There was a huge protest going on last night and continued today in front of the Treasury building and the mainstream news isn’t covering it.
Musk and his aides are illegally closing buildings and preventing access by employees. They have downloaded god only knows what documents they do not have clearance for. They have effectively shut down USAID stranding workers and cutting them off from secure communications in dangerous locales. They have access to our social security numbers and our private Medicare and Medicaid records. Trump's aides are drafting an executive order to shut down the Department of Education. When Democrats called to subpoena Musk today to question him about his actions, Republicans blocked it.
Trump has fired all the prosecutors that worked with Jack Smith and on the J6 cases and those involving Trump, they are asking for a list of all FBI agents who worked on those cases to be identified, they have sent letters to every CIA personnel encouraging them to resign; the same offer sent to every civil service employee offering 8 months pay if they do, however none of that money has been authorized and we all know Trump is notorious for not paying his debts and Musk made the same promises to employees of Twitter/X that were not kept. Word is our spy network is going to be shifted to focus on the West.
Trump intends to send “dangerous” (ie anyone who opposes Trump) American citizens to detention camps in Guantanamo Bay away from the eyes of those who are concerned about their civil rights as stated in the Constitution and maybe even prisons in El Salvador. His new manifest destiny, ignoring established international law recognizing fixed borders, means Canada, Mexico, Greenland, Panama, and now Gaza are at risk of invasion.
Our Constitution is just a quaint piece of paper now since the President, Congress, and the Supreme Court no longer uphold it and no law enforcement agency is stepping up to enforce it. There is no longer the Rule of Law in this country, the law only applies to those who oppose him now. Whatever the result of all this is and we hopefully get Congress back in the midterms, it will be almost impossible to reconstruct the government for the people by the people and it has only been two weeks. Things are going to get much much worse.
I know this is very doom and gloom but that’s kind of where we’re at right now.
Thank you for bearing witness. It’s a lot. That baby is adorable!
ReplyDeleteI can only take so much and then I have to ignore it for a few days.
DeleteSure is ugly. I am astounded at how few people have any idea of what is going on.
ReplyDeleteRight? As in all of Trump voters until it hits home like the people who have relatives deported.
DeleteOne of the things that we are learning here is that a Democracy is only as good as the officials that are running it.
ReplyDeleteSenator King took his republican colleagues to task Thursday with a speech about how tenuous the Constitution is right now, how Trump and Musk are doing exactly what the founding fathers warned us against. It fell on deaf ears. Then republicans voted yes on Russell Vought, an architect of Project 2025 and a dangerous christian nationalist who wants to impose repressive christian rule on the nation, to head the OMB.
DeleteIt all feels so much more hopeless when you live in a state as red as Texas. I have been bombarding my representatives (who do not represent those such as I) and have yet to receive a reply beyond the automated ‘we have received your message’ sort. Truly terrifying times. Margaret, who lives on an island in the Gulf of Mexico.
ReplyDeleteAnd you won't. They don't care what their constituents think and will do nothing. Congress has been receiving tens of millions of calls fro angry constituents agry that Trump and Musk are running rampant, a fucking wrecking ball and republicans are unmoved.
DeleteThe story about the Coast Guard admiral being evicted with less than 3 hours notice absolutely ruined
ReplyDeletemy day. No way is that something that should happen in this country. I guess before long people will be falling from high windows. All those people wanting to come here need to turn around and RUN! The line to get out is going to be longer than the one coming in. Every day another atrocity. Blows the mind and breaks the heart.............
Apparently the only people who have ever been hired that were actually qualified are white christian men, no matter how mediocre. They think the color of their skin makes them inherently superior.
DeleteI am still having trouble wrapping my head around this. It's just sickening.
ReplyDeleteAnd the thing is the vast majority of Americans have no idea what is happening and they believe the lies they are boing fed.
DeleteYes it’s where we are right now. I opened a new bank account today and am leaving the old one open simply to receive my social security and will immediately transfer it to the new. Mailing a paper check is fraught with its own perils. That is if King Musk decides we can have our payments. I never thought I’d see the downfall of this country happen and so quickly.
ReplyDeleteXoxo
Barbara
Social media and the internet and everything being run on computers. Made it easy.
DeleteCodex
ReplyDeleteTo all
FBI is suing. There will be emergency orders. All representatives have to record the reason you contacted them. Other important lawsuits are being filed. Its not all doom and gloom. Keep at it.
Codex: Senator Markey just showed that he was denied entry into the federal building of the EPA. Let's see if that strategy worked. (He's a lawyer so he knows that he could have insisted). SMH at all of this.
DeleteCodex: update dems are moving for impeachment. Don't despair
DeleteTo what end? Unless a significant number of republicans vote for impeachment it won't even pass the House much less get a conviction in the Senate. I applaud the effort but it seems like an exercise in futility, just 'going on the record' as it were. As for the judgements in the courts, who is going to enforce court orders if Trump and Musk just ignore them, which they are doing. They control Congress, the Supreme Court, the DoJ, the DoD. Grant money is still being withheld even though the courts have lifted the freeze, people still have lost jobs, buildings are still locked, those little pissant hackers are still running rampant. And thanks to the Supreme court, Trump is basically untouchable from a federal response.
DeleteCodex: I'll have to do this in sections due to time constraints. Fascism, communism and totalitarianism have never worked. We are a global community and trade is important. His actions will push us into war, recession and depression. Superwealthy people do not like that because investments require stability and a war could mean losing millions per investor. Markets are global and can't keep crashing. Dems won't make certain changes because they also represent certain interest. The little guy feels it first, eventually the big guys do too. That's the short explanation.
DeleteOh, I know. Fascists, totalitarians rise and fall. Sometimes the people rise up, sometimes it takes a war. As long as the rich people feel secure they won't care. In the long run things change but they don't ever go back to what was before. In the meantime people lose their jobs, they may lose everything, they may even die, they may be jailed for resistance. However, knowing that it will end in 10, 20, 30 years doesn't really help people cope with or survive the recession, depression, or the repression of a rising fascist. Hopefully when the midterms roll around we can take back some control but Trump basically told us that Musk, with his tech savvy, stole the election for him, he even told people they didn't need to vote, that he had all the votes he needed, so what's to stop them from doing it again? And we are living in unprecedented times when so much of how the government functions is on line. Who knows how much damage Musk's hackers have done, what code they have changed or inserted, what documents they have downloaded.
DeleteCodex: Yes. I'm aware of what he's doing, but you're missing my point. This is 2025 not the 1940s. There are international agreements that can't just be broken. New treaties, allies etc. E.g. he did not manage to pull out of Nato. You're thinking americacentric, but there are other countries and global businesses that can and will get involved.
DeleteE.g. his comment about Gaza being handed over to America is silly. Israel doesn't own it. It can't be handed over. The midterms are one option, but there are other options in between.
Amplifying what he's doing and what can't be done isn't helping. What CAN be done is what matters.
To continue our conversation, no time yesterday. Yes, I agree, this is 2025 which has made Trump's and Musk's takeover that much easier and swifter. It's not that I'm missing your point, I hear what you are saying about international and global business interests and pressure and I hope you are right that they will prevent Trump from invading other countries for their strategic locations and minerals (and yes absurd the whole thing about Gaza) and also preventing global economic instability. But Trump can and has broken treaties and international agreements. He pulled out of NAFTA to renegotiate, pulled out of the Iran Nuclear Deal, pulled out of the Treaty on Open Skies, pulled out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Treaty, the Paris Climate Accords just to name a few. And he doesn't have to pull out of NATO, just not respond. I'm concerned about all this of course but I don't think he will or could start a war. The man is all about threats and bluster. My more immediate concern is what is being done here, the destruction of our government, our Constitution, this dismantling of every chenk, balance, and safety. International pressure is not going to rehire or reinstate. It isn't going to stop immigrants being sent to Gitmo without due legal process or stop Musk and his hackers from their illegal activity or keep Bondi from weaponizing the DoJ etc. Yes the courts are finding all this illegal but it hasn't stopped anything or reinstated anything. So far. We need to amplify what he is doing because the majority of the population, I believe, is totally ignorant about what's going on. Resistance depends on knowledge. I'm happy to hear any suggestions on what can be done here by the people here.
DeleteCodex: no worries. I use an example first look up Tony Sage recent interview. CEO of the mining company that has rights to mine in greenland. He explains it very well. If his company is bought by the thing it's problematic. EU has a very capable tough politician von der Layen.
DeleteFighting on an environmental level: waste of time
Fighting for fair trade and against a merger worth it.
Since 1940s there are international laws; from human rights to banking practices. Those can and will intervene. I'll be back. ;)
Codex: Sorry, Ellen. I made a choice recently not to engage in doom and gloom scenarios because they are a self fulfilling prophecy. At individual levels pick what's most important to you. We're focusing on science and women and nothing else. But some suggestions donate to ACLU, wikipedia. Get library cards for all members of family, they survive on numbers even if you check nothing out. Read paper magazines like economist, sciam etc. It supports them and still has decent reporting.
DeleteSupport the digital act it's the next big battle for our privacy.
Listing what he's doing is fine. Giving up is not. Maybe I wasn't clear.
It "hasn't stopped anything", yet!!!!But many of the decisions will be reversed. He is not all powerful, although he thinks he is.
It's overwhelming because it's happening so fast, no one can fight this alone.
Codex: doing this in between other things. There's a class action to overturn Roe decision, but no one is reporting it. An article is claiming that the word "women and research" will be banned. Not sure what that's about. I'm guessing it will be difficult to look things up.
DeleteJust read your responses to other comments. Agreed, digitalization made this possible.
Big companies are multinational, parts are made and assembled in several countries. It doesn't work any other way. They're pushing back.
Codex: Calling it a night. People can do whatever they want, but my suggestion is not getting upset about absurd stuff like Gaza and separating it from what we can actually do. It's burnout otherwise and I wish someone had just gone public (media) that that's not possible for anyone instead of people even discussing it.
DeleteP.S. Allies are reciprocal. Canada sent firefighters. EU sent baby formula etc.
DeleteHarris knew and told him that he'll hand the Ukraine over. Emboldened putin and he continues. He just did that. So who is going to rescue us if we abandon the EU? That's what I meant.
That new baby is entering a world fraught with danger of every kind. Most of the young people I know are electing not to have children. Trump gets more irrational by the day.
ReplyDeleteIf I was young and in childbearing age right now, I don't think I would have children. A lot of women have no interest in marriage or childbearing right now and with good reason.
DeleteThe Dramedy is Epic, Swift and they certainly did their Homework to do it better than their failed attempt in the 1st Administration. We knew this was coming but I think far too many Americans supported it and so now here we are. Not a bullet needed to be fired to bring down America from within. The Man defended his Country for 39 Years in a distinguished Military Career and resents our Freedom was handed over in a single Election to a deranged Psychopath and his Billionaire unelected Tech Bro, who is South African, could never be Elected, and just walked in the Back Door just like that to get illegal clearance and all the valuable Data he wanted on every single one of us. How can this NOT be on our Hearts and Minds, it will impact us ALL and it's just begun.
ReplyDeleteLet us tend our gardens while we can. Let us love our children and babies and offer them the safe space of our arms. While we can.
ReplyDeleteIt's all we can do.
DeleteAnd there it is -- the annual announcement of the first anemone. I need to get my sweet self moving and get out there to find some for myself!
ReplyDeleteWhoops. That was me. I had logged out of Google for a particular reason and forgot to log back in here.
DeleteThere were just few when I first wrote it but now they are popping up everywhere.
DeleteI agree with Codex. Don't give up. Keep at it.
ReplyDeleteNot giving up but it's going to get worse before it gets better now that his appointees are getting approved.
DeleteHolding a newly born person is such a wonderful feeling. Lovely boy!
ReplyDeleteNot only are elon's boys unelected - as is he - but they are also outspoken nazis. That's where you are, at the mercy of young energetic keen nazis.
Young energetic keen nazi hackers.
DeleteIt has never occurred to me to take a cutting from a morning glory plant and keep it in the house! Oh the things there are to learn are possible!
ReplyDeleteThe morning glory bush, ipomoea carnea, grows differently than the traditional morning glory vines like heavenly blue, ipomoea purpurea or ipomoea tricolor. It's more of a shrub although I discovered if it doesn't freeze back during the winter the individual branches, if they get long enough, will become vine-like. It is the thick branches of carnea that will root in water. Never tried to root a heavenly blue vine in water.
DeleteIt's a heist. If Musk and Trump had any guts they'd go after the Pentagon instead of nickel and dime DEI targets
ReplyDeleteAccording to the Alt National Park Service that's exactly what they're doing.
DeleteYour president started dismantling the public sector, building concentration camps and threatening invasion of other countries quicker than was done in Germany in 1933.
ReplyDeleteIt's the new modern age. Social media and everything on the internet and electronic made it easy.
Delete