political violence

As we are all aware, Charlie Kirk was assassinated a few days ago. Trump immediately, with no proof or evidence at all since the shooter had not been caught much less identified, claimed that it was fanatic leftists, democrats, and was the result of democrat violent rhetoric and the MAGAt spin machine was off and running. Of course. We have learned since that the shooter was a young white Christian male from a Trump supporting republican family big on the gun culture, the kind that poses for pictures with all their semi-automatic weaponry, who was radicalized by social media (big surprise) and a follower of Nick Fuentes and his Groyper movement who thought Kirk wasn’t radical enough. Apparently there is an internecine conflict between the two groups. While the kid was personally unaffiliated politically with no record of recent voting, there is a donation of over $200 to a Trump Make America Great Again Committee in his name made in 2020. Has the right wing corrected their violent rhetoric against the left and Democrats with this new information. Of course not. They have instead whitewashed Kirk into a popular young man with an adoring following who was just exercising his right to free speech frantically removing as much of Kirk's hate speech online as possible.

Do we know which group lashes out with violence? We do.

Charlie Kirk was a dangerous man even more so because he cultivated an image of reasonableness and calm debate. But there was no debate that would sway Kirk from his positions because they came from his religious convictions. It was all just a sham, there were no facts anyone could present that could convince him of the wrongness of his vision for this country and culture. He was a Dominionist and used the debate format for the sole purpose of radicalizing young men in particular to his far right racist misogynist patriarchal view of what America should be refuting facts with religious dogma. 

For all the calmness and reasonableness he tried to project, his words and intent were hateful and cruel. He was just fine with children being killed by an angry person with a gun as the price to pay for their unfettered access and possession of whatever gun you want interpretation of the 2nd amendment. He thought empathy was a made up new age term and does a lot of damage. Empathy, he thought empathy was a bad thing. He thought gay people should be stoned to death. He said women should marry young and have babies, stay in the home and be submissive to their husbands. Any woman or person of color was automatically a DEI hire and unqualified for the job. He specifically said black women did not have the mental capacity to be intelligent. 

So the big debate on SM is did he deserve to die because of his beliefs, for exercising his right to free speech, was his murder justified? I don’t know, maybe. I’m against murder and violence to achieve selfish goals, don’t even own a gun, but I’m unmoved by his murder. The white right wing Christian nationalists don't want a multicultural nation where we all just get along. How do you 'get along' with people who refuse to compromise, whose goal is to rid the country of everyone not like them; to impose through violence, brutality, the law and government, to force adherence to their narrow and extreme religiously based social culture? We've seen the logical conclusion to that in Nazi Germany and the Inquisition in Spain. Eventually you fight or you let them kill you. 

So, did Kirk get what he deserved? Had one of the assassination attempts on Hitler been successful would it have been justified knowing what we know? I’m not exactly equating Kirk and Hitler. We don’t know what the future would have been with Kirk still in it but we do know where that kind of repressive and violent rhetoric leads, we see it unfolding in real time. Whether or not Kirk’s assassination was justified, whether this nation is better off without him, is something each of us will have to decide. And we really don't know what motivated the shooter. I think it’s possible to be morally against murder but at the same time not be upset that someone who was leading a movement based on hatred, violence, and repression was a victim of the very violence and hatred he espoused. 

While the MAGAts are crying foul, blaming liberals even though it was one of their own that was responsible for silencing Kirk, people are losing their jobs for exercising their own right to freedom of speech on SM or in the workplace, for expressing their opposition to Trump and all things MAGA or their refusal to let the whitewashed martyrdom of Charlie Kirk go unchallenged. 

Regardless of Kirk’s influence or lack thereof, he was just one of the many right wing christian nationalists spouting their hate against women, POC, the LGBTQ+ community, immigrants, liberals, the educated, and ‘woke’ on SM and in podcasts marching this country straight into religious authoritarian fascism. Dissent is punished. The bounty hunters formally known as ICE recently shot and killed a man they were trying to apprehend who resisted. Brian Kilmeade on Fox said homeless people should be euthanized, “involuntary lethal injection, or something. Just kill them.” on live TV and was not fired on the spot. How long until they dig a trench with a backhoe, line people up and shoot them in the head and people just shrug? 

more of the same and this is what finally got their attention?

It’s currently 86˚ with the ‘real feel’ 20 degrees hotter at 10 AM (this was yesterday). I’ve been working outside the past week but only for an hour or hour and a half at a time. Have I spent that time on any one thing getting it done? Hell, no. I’m jumping around leaving little piles of debris all over the yard. I’ve pulled up all six tomato plants and only cut up three of them and tossed on the compost pile and put away those three cages. The other three are still laying on the ground as is the cucumber which finally grew like gangbusters and bloomed profusely all male flowers, except for two that didn’t get bigger than an inch before they disappeared. I deadheaded the zinnias for seeds for next year. I tackled the completely overgrown area under the big Chinese fringe flower tree that turns in a glowing torch in the spring on the northeast corner of the property getting the grass and weeds out of only half where the gerber daisy and easter lilies grow and bordered part of that with bricks (you can see the part that didn’t get done bottom right). 

I cut the water sprouts off the fringe tree and two of the crepe myrtles. I’m slowly cutting up the big limb that fell off the pecan tree one wagon load at a time and tossing it in the truck for eventual dumping on the burn pile. I cut some of the low hanging branches off the big cedar tree in the back. And Monday I discovered the ants had invaded the garage and the bag of bird seed, building nests under the foam mats, two big piles of eggs, so all the mats had to be taken up, the garage hosed out, the mats hosed down, the concrete swept after it dried, 

swept again yesterday morning because the ants weren’t completely discouraged, and the mats laid down again. 

A pain in the butt but the mats are absolutely necessary because while the concrete apron where we park the car and truck has a texture, the concrete floor in the garage is smooth and very slick when condensation gets it wet, dangerously so, slippy slidey so. Just as well, that whole area under the mats and against the wall needed to be swept out.

I’ve had no AC in the car for a week but Mikey looked at it Sunday and it’s leaking in two places. Seal kit is being ordered but in the meantime it’s all windows down.

That’s about all that’s going on around here and no political commentary because it’s all horrible and seemingly unstoppable and every time time you think that’s it, that’s the bottom we discover that no, no it isn’t. I’m a little heartened to see the rift in MAGAtland over the Epstein files/client list but confused about why that. It’s not like we didn’t know Trump is a rapist and sexual abuser since he’s bragged about it and we know he raped 13 and 14 year old girls on Epstein’s island because those grown girls have told us so. Trump was big buddies with Epstein and plenty of video to back that up. Of course Republicans and Pam Bondi were never going to release any of that because of who is on the list but they made a big mistake during the campaign promising to release it and bring all those 'pedophile Democrat liberals' to justice. And that’s why I believe the cultists are enraged, not necessarily because girls were raped (apparently rape is fine in MAGAtland as long as the women are grown) but because they believe it’s liberals on the list and now Trump is protecting them. We can only hope that this is the rift that allows some of his base to abandon him, something bad enough to let them save face, because obviously kidnapping and cruelty and loss of freedom and rights hasn’t been enough.

So I guess some political commentary. Anyway, here’s some random photos that have been piling up.

I enjoyed the Hamish Macbeth series so much that I thought I would read some of the books so the next time I went to the library I looked to see what they had and thinking I would start with the oldest that they had and work my way forward I picked this one. Think it’s been around a while?

Haven’t posted a pic of the prisms that the crystals throw on my walls and everything else in the mornings for a while. The summer canopy of the tallow tree prevents most of the direct sunlight but there is one little opening that allows a ray or two between 9 and 9:30.

Sunday’s sunset.

The rangoon creeper in full bloom.

The spider lilies are also blooming.

And the porterweed (was, it’s between bloom cycles now).

FYI, I didn’t answer comments for the most part for years but this year I’ve really tried to start doing that. You know, in case you haven't noticed and are interested.

commando, art, despicable people

My across the street neighbor was working out in his yard mowing and trimming Sunday morning and he was going commando. The reason I know this is because when I went out with Minnie to have a look around I happened to look across the street and he was bending over fiddling with something on the ground and his pants had fallen so far down his rear that I could see his butthole. Ewww, dude, pull those pants up. Seriously. Nobody wants to see that. 

I got all the note cards packaged up and the larger 5" x 7" prints framed this week. Each package of notecards has a sheet showing which images are in that pack.

Then I delivered them to Hesed House after SHARE Thursday and they were delighted to receive them all. I still have the two little original watercolors to frame and take to them. Maybe next week.

An early morning conversation at SHARE yesterday put me in a foul mood for the day. It was pretty slow like it usually is on the first Thursday of the month because people have gotten their WIC funds we surmise, only one or two small food orders the first hour, so I was sitting in the back with the guys when one of the volunteers mentioned he had seen a chart of government expenditures. He expected the military the biggest but first was Medicare/Medicaid. The military budget was third. I remarked that if medical care wasn’t so expensive in this country people wouldn’t need help which set him off about how we’re paying for other people with our taxes and how people think socialized medicine is so great. I told him everyone I knew who lived in a country with socialized medicine liked it. Another guy chimed in that he had lived in Norway and you had to wait a long time to get a procedure. And I’m thinking, first, why would you not want to live in a country that had a healthy productive population and second, how is having to wait for a procedure worse than not being able to get it at all. Then he went off on people just wanting all this free stuff, illegals getting free medical care (they pay taxes I told him that they don’t receive any benefit from, well not if they're paid under the table he said completely ignoring the fact that they pay sales taxes just like everyone else), people applying for everything as if all you need to do is apply and not have to qualify. He went off on college, how he went through college, got his degree, and didn’t get in debt but now nobody wants to pay for it they just get all the loans they can and not pay them back. My comment that people are paying on their loans but after 20 years they still owe the same or more went over his head. The Norway guy spoke up that he didn’t get in debt either but then when he went to college tuition was $300 a semester for as few or as many hours as you wanted to take. Yeah, things are different now. First guy wasn’t through, complaining that colleges just teach useless stuff, people get degrees and can’t get a job. I’m thinking who is he to decide what courses colleges should or should not teach. Not interested in that course of study, don’t take the classes but why bitch about the fact that they are offered. Anyway, I’d had enough by then and we got a food order in so I went back to my station and stayed there whether I was busy or not the rest of the morning. Just about everybody that volunteers there votes republican which at this point voting for Trump makes you a MAGAt as far as I’m concerned. I just can’t reconcile the disconnect of these people that volunteer at a food bank that also offers clothing, housewares, diapers, linens, etc to people in need and then vote to reduce aid, whether it’s medical care or food and housing assistance to those same people, people that they have nothing but disdain and scorn for. Republicans have brought back the myth of the Welfare Queen only this time it's the able bodied man living in his mom's basement who chooses not to work. Do they think Medicaid just sends people checks instead of paying the doctors or hospitals for the medical care? 

When I went to college tuition at the University of Houston was $200 a semester. I don’t know how much room and board in a dorm cost then because I was living at home. Here’s what it costs today.

I wish I could turn that volunteer into a 20 year old and then see if he brags about getting his degree without getting into debt.

Last night during dinner I bit the inside of my cheek, not a nip, but a crunching bite. Then this morning I woke up from a long involved disturbing dream full of struggle and a bit of a headache, reached over and tapped my dream catcher, my talisman bag, and my guardian angel that hang on the wall beside my bed and told them they weren’t doing their jobs. And if that wasn’t bad enough when I went out to raise the garage door (have to do it by hand because the motor quit working after the flood) a wasp that was building a nest behind one of the metal struts on the door stung me right on my nose! Fucker. Because that still wasn’t a bad enough start to the day, during breakfast I bit the inside of my cheek again in the same place!

So today is the 4th of July. I won’t be putting out my flag, I won’t be celebrating what this country has become, a country where the President, a state Governor, and Cosplay Barbie of Homeland Security stand in front of their new concentration camp to incarcerate 3,000 people snatched up without warrants or due process and put in cages in tents surrounded by a chain link fence topped with razor wire that they built in 8 days in the middle of the mosquito, alligator, and snake infested Florida Everglades in the middle of summer yucking it up, big smiles, thumbs up while they imagine potential escapees getting eaten by alligators. The whole thing designed for maximum cruelty. 

The government won’t build housing for the homeless, doesn’t want to feed the hungry or provide medical care for the sick and injured but they can and did build a concentration camp in 8 fucking days to fill it with people who had jobs, families, contributed to their communities, paid taxes, were self sufficient that now the government must provide for however poorly they plan to do it. 

So, yeah, my day is just peachy.

 

more of the clown show and thought provoking reading

The crepe myrtles all over town are in full bloom. These are along the side of the barn.

I don’t know how many of you follow Jeff Tiedrich but if you want to laugh while crying and shaking your head in total dismay about the incompetence posing as the US government, really, read his Tuesday report of Trump and his not peace deal between Israel and Iran.  

I wrote the above yesterday. Today Trump gave a press conference at NATO. When asked why he hadn’t been able to end the war in Ukraine he responded that it is “more difficult than people would have any idea”. No Donny, it is more difficult than YOU had any idea. Everyone else with half a brain cell is well aware that peace in Ukraine isn’t possible because Putin has no intention of giving up until he absorbs all of Ukraine and Ukraine is just as determined to remain Ukraine. 

The ceasefire between Iran and Israel seems to be holding though, for now, but not because of Trump's all caps ’truths’ on his echo chamber but because Qatar negotiated. Despite Trump’s continued claim to the contrary of all evidence, Iran’s nuclear program was not destroyed and only set back by a few months or at most perhaps a couple of years, none of their nuclear material was lost, and it seems likely that the Iranians also moved whatever equipment they could. But Trump got to feel like a big bad ass and he will never admit that his strike was ever anything but a total success. If I was Iran I’d be lying my ass off claiming that the facilities were destroyed, because for Trump it’s not really about the result but the optics. Besides, he knows he's right because he said at the press conference that two Iranians went down there and took a look and then called him to say, yep, you did it, totally destroyed.

More rain Tuesday afternoon, another 2” on top of the almost 9” from the week before last and might get more today (we did). At least it’s giving us some respite from the heat since our highs for the next few days will only be in the 80s. Tuesday was also my semi-annual teeth cleaning and the practice has a new hygienist. My previous hygienist was a Trump supporter and while it didn’t leak out every time it did once in a while. She did a competent enough job even if she tended to rat me out to the dentist because I wouldn’t follow all her recommendations, like getting one of those water jet things, so I’m really glad she has moved to a different practice. This new young woman gave me good marks for keeping my teeth clean, said she didn’t have to do very much.

I might have mentioned I led the yoga class last Wednesday. Abby has been having some hip pain for about a year now and it finally got bad enough to go to the doctor. Turns out she has a tear in her hip and she will probably need surgery but before that the protocol is to do some kind of injection to deal with the pain. So she had the injection but it hadn’t kicked in yet and it turns out after she researched the diagnosis that some of the yoga asanas we do helped but others aggravated it so she’s going to have to modify what she can include in the class. Anyway, Monday she was still having significant pain so I led the class again. It’s possible I might be doing that more often depending on how the treatment for her hip goes.

I know I mentioned I get a daily newsletter from Nautilus that gives links to some fascinating reading on "thought provoking science stories" and while I’m not a paid subscriber which you have to be to get access to the all articles they do provide one free link in every newsletter. One recent newsletter was about the nature of consciousness and the free article was Is Matter Conscious? by Hedda Hassel Morch published March 31 2017, and yes, very thought provoking reading. It seems that consciousness is not the result of our brain activity but rather that the brain is the mechanism that our consciousness uses in the material world to navigate it and thereby not limited to humans as we like to think. It brings to mind the concept of cosmic consciousness and a small publication I read years ago published by the Theosophical Society titled The Consciousness Of The Atom which proposes that everything is conscious albeit in varying degrees and an excerpt from an article by Evan Thompson published on the psychology today blog that thinking isn’t generated by the brain, it just facilitates it, that Barbara Rogers posted on her blog Inner Workings.

The other free article in an issue devoted to intelligence is titled Another Path to Intelligence by James Bridle published August 17, 2022 focused on cephalopods whose brains and bodies are nothing like ours and yet are highly intelligent. Octopi particularly are fascinating. Their brains are not centralized like ours but extend through their bodies and into their limbs with their arms having the ability to act as independent minds. They demonstrate their intelligence whenever we humans try to keep them captive or study them as illustrated with anecdotes of their successful escape attempts, their ability to manipulate our environment, that they can recognize individual human faces. Their behavior in captivity and in the wild has shown that they learn, remember, know, think, consider, and act based on their intelligence. Clearly, “The tree of evolution bears many fruits and many flowers, and intelligence, rather than being found only in the highest branches, has in fact flowered everywhere.“.

here we go again

We knew Trump’s monumental humiliation on No Kings Day and his barely attended pathetic excuse for a military parade that was supposed to inspire fear and envy in the rest of the world coupled with the obvious lack of respect he received at the G7 summit in Canada would have repercussions because Trump never lets the least slight slide. His obsession with winning a Nobel Peace Prize and his bottomless need for respect and adulation apparently culminated in the conviction that if he bombed Iran into oblivion thereby saving the world from possible annihilation if Iran ever actually produced a nuclear weapon it would result in both. Either that or, and more likely, bombing Iran was a big fuck you, I’ll show you who’s powerful. Trump bombs Iran and then declares now is the time for peace, in all caps, or else. He thinks he’s shown them who’s boss, that he’s won. Iran’s nuclear ambitions destroyed by me! Praise me, I saved everyone, now give me my peace prize! Iran’s all, not even Bozo. This is not over. Wars are easy to start, hard to stop. Just ask George Bush the younger. 

In an interview Secretary of State Marco Rubio, when asked why would Iran agree to a peace deal when the US already pulled out of the treaty Iran had been abiding by that limited their nuclear ambitions and then launched surprise attacks against Iran, responded “The ones that shouldn’t be trusted are the Iranians.” Same interview or maybe a different one he said they weren’t looking for a war with Iran but if they retaliated it would be the worst mistake they ever made. Apparently to this administration bombing a sovereign nation to stop them from developing a nuclear bomb after withdrawing from a treaty that was preventing them from doing so isn’t a declaration of war, but that country retaliating is. Trump will claim that Iran started this particular conflict when it was Israel who started the escalation when they started bombing Iran directly. 

Iran supports militant groups in other countries fighting what they consider oppression and we call them terrorists but so do we, so do other nations. The only difference is we don't call the ones we support terrorists. Whatever the nomenclature the goal is the same, to support those who are likely to get us what we want through the use of violence. Israel calls Iran a terrorist nation, Iran calls Israel a terrorist nation. Israel bombs hospitals, schools, residential areas, and aid distribution sites in Gaza and nobody blinks an eye. Iran bombed one hospital in Israel and is accused of war crimes. Netanyahu ignored the intel that an attack by Hamas was imminent in response to the apartheid conditions and terrorist tactics used by the IDF in Gaza and the West Bank and is using it as an excuse to wipe Gaza off the map. Less than 2,000 Israelis have been killed in the current conflict compared to almost 60,000 Palestinians. Israel restricts how much aid is allowed into Gaza if any at all and the people are starving. The US is apparently fine with that because Trump wants to develop the Gaza coast. The line between defense and terrorism is very fuzzy and depends on which side of the line you're standing on. 

So now, here we are, embroiled in another possible war started by the ‘no new wars’ president, unless of course he feels humiliated and needs to whip someone’s ass to make himself feel better, a draft dodging man who calls those killed in action or held prisoner losers. We shouldn’t be surprised, you know, war is what we do. This country has been at war for almost every year of its existence and usually more than one military action at a time. In fact I don’t think there has been a single year during my lifetime, and I’m 75 years old, that the US has not been involved in some kind of military operation all over the world including four major wars…Korean War, VietNam War, war in Afghanistan, and war in Iraq…and we are the biggest exporter of military weaponry. 

What happens in Iran remains to be seen, just how long and deep this military action will go or if it sparks a wider conflict. It puts Trump at odds with his handler Putin since Iran and Russia are aligned and Putin is not about to abandon his stronghold in the Middle East considering he already lost Syria any more than he is going to give up Ukraine and his ambitions towards all of Eastern Europe. Destroying Iran’s ability to build nuclear weapons doesn’t necessarily mean they will never have any if Russia wants them to.

So, yeah, war is what we do. War is what humans do. The entirety of human history is war and conflict and conquest creating one great empire after another. My theory is that being the apex predator we have nothing to keep us in check but ourselves, that we are our own predator. It doesn't seem to be working though. The planet is groaning with unrestrained population growth and competition for resources.

peaches, drawing, retaliation

I picked a dozen more peaches on Sunday and the rest last night, 45 in all. Peach cobbler planned for tonight.

I had a flat tire on the car yesterday. Coming back from yoga class Monday night, though it was daylight as the sun doesn’t set until 8:30 these days, still on the highway but closer to Wharton than not I ran over something I did not see but felt and heard when the passenger side rear tire went over it. Why just the rear tire I can’t tell you as I was going in a straight line. After I took the exit for the long stretch into town the low tire light came on. Great. Fingers crossed, I made it home before it was completely flat. I called AAA to come put on the spare. Marc and I both know how to change a tire and have done it but why are we paying for AAA road service if we’re not going to use it. As it turned out, the tire would not come off easily and the guy had to pound on it from behind to get it loose. Marc took the flat to the tire place where they plugged a hole and put it back on for $12.50.

I’m working on a new drawing/painting, preliminary stage. I’ve decided on subject matter but not composition yet. Right now I’m working on drawing different views of woodland violets, larger than life. Once I get the individual elements drawn I’ll play around with composition and size. I’m thinking I’ll do a colored pencil drawing before I try to tackle a watercolor. Here are two little sketches so far.

All that rain last week finally hatched a crop of mosquitos, big black aggressive ones. One of the bird baths was teeming with larvae. All three are empty now drying out so I need to go put fresh water in them.

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The retaliation has begun. Stunned by the now official count of 13+ million Americans rejecting him and his policies during the No Kings protests coupled with the low turnout for that poor excuse of a parade, Trump has reverted to form. Saturday night in a moment of weakness Trump ordered ICE to stop raids on farms, hotels, restaurants, and meat packing plants and put a halt on non-criminal arrests. Sunday night a post on his TS account stated ICE officers are herewith ordered to do all in their power to conduct the largest Mass Deportation Program in history doubling down on America’s largest predominately Democrat cities with his usual hate filled rhetoric against liberals, democrats, and the left ignoring the fact that even red states and red cities had large turnouts for the No Kings protests. Sunday US Marines accompanied about 60 ICE agents to a popular LA county swap meet questioning people, asking their names, and taking pictures and while only a few people were arrested, the point was intimidation. Monday he has ordered raids on farms, restaurants, and hotels to resume. And continuing Trump’s and his administration’s attack on his opponents, ICE agents arrested another democrat, NYC comptroller Brad Lander, as he tried to escort a migrant out of an immigration courthouse and Democrat congress members are being denied entry into ICE detention centers which is against the law as Congress has the legal right to unannounced oversight visits.

A woman I know is a card carrying member of the Trump cult and she often shares memes on FB that are if not outright lies then full of half truths. She posted one on Sunday maybe, 4 lies liberals are telling about Trump’s birthday parade. I don’t remember what the other three were but one of them was that our tax payer money did not pay for the parade, it was paid for by the sponsors. That is a lie. The money paid by the sponsors went to a fund called America250, a congressionally appointed nonprofit in charge of raising funds to celebrate the upcoming US Semiquincentennial and was tapped to handle spectator logistics and the attending ‘festival’ connected to the parade. We have a list of the sponsors but none of them have been forthcoming with the amount they donated and in 2022 a lawsuit was filed against the nonprofit for mismanaging federal funds, cronyism, and engaging in sexist behavior among other things. While America250 is reported to have paid for the auxiliary activities it did not pay for the actual parade; the movement of troops, equipment, and planes or the pledge to repair any of the damage to the streets of DC caused by the heavy equipment which the Army has estimated to cost between $25 and $45 million. Neither did the nonprofit pay for the security provided by DC for which the government is supposed to reimburse the city.  A link to the article here.

After being basically ignored, dismissed by the other world leaders, and laughed at, Trump left the G7 meeting early, ostensibly to deal with the Israeli/Iran war currently going on, to decide if he was going to send American soldiers to join against Iran or just heavier munitions to Israel since he gave an ultimatum of 60 days to Iran and Iran ignored him. He has sent the USS Nimitz Battle G from the South China Sea to join the USS Carl Vinson strike group already in the Arabian Sea along with Air Force refueling planes. The ‘no wars’ president is about to get us involved in a war in the Middle East, desperate to engage in a show of strength to counteract all the humiliation of the past several days. And to that I saw a video yesterday by Anonymous claiming to have evidence that a false flag attack on the US is not only planned but imminent. I don’t put much stock in videos like that but it is an alarming idea and I’m not sure that that would be a step too far even for this administration.