News blues…
As Donald Trump grapples with ways to defeat America and American voters, and invoke martial law rather than be “a loser,” Fever Swamp is an apt description of his state of mind. (6:55 mins)Moreover, former sycophants are turning on him (and there’s no anger like that of former sycophants). Even right-wing, conspiracy-spreading news outlets such as Fox and Newsmax and turning on him.
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The worse is yet to come? The number of people hospitalized across California with confirmed COVID-19 infections is more than double the state’s previous peak, reached in July, and a state model forecasts the total could hit 75,000 patients by mid-January. Plans for rationing care are not in place yet, but they need to be established because “the worst is yet to come….”
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The Lincoln Project: The dream still lives (0:55 mins) Healthy planet, anyone?
The global food system is on course to drive rapid and widespread ecological damage with almost 90% of land animals likely to lose some of their habitat by 2050.A study published in the journal Nature Sustainability shows that unless the food industry is rapidly transformed, changing what people eat and how it is produced, the world faces widespread biodiversity loss in the coming decades.
The study’s lead author, David Williams from Leeds University, said without fundamental changes, millions of square kilometres of natural habitats could be lost by 2050. “Ultimately, we need to change what we eat and how it is produced if we are going to save wildlife on a global scale.”
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Summer solstice. The day I slowly began moving belongings into my new small home. Also the day my mother upped the ante on her determination to escape the Care Center.My giant dilemma: what to do with someone whose determination to “escape” revolves around a fantasy only tangentially related to reality. Terrified of her brush with making an effort to fit in, desperately afraid of rejection, and replete with years of being in charge, she finds herself not in charge. Deteriorating physical and cognitive disabilities make it unlikely she’ll ever be in charge again.
Nevertheless, she’s stubbornly determined to win an unwinnable game – and control the outcome, too.
I, on the other hand, find myself emotionally detached. Emotional distance is what I learned as my mother’s daughter; emotional distance is how I find myself responding. Dutiful daughter. ***
Monkey see, monkey do. Emboldened by their successful raid on my pantry with “paw paws” (papayas) earlier this week, monkeys now case the joint while I’m inside. With the remaining 3 dogs find it above their paygrade to chase monkeys, so monkeys circle the downstairs seeking entry. The potential quick gobble of paw paw in the pantry makes all risk worthwhile.
My response? Shut the French doors, close the burglar guards and shout, “Scoot monkeys!”
So far, scooting is the last thing on monkey minds!
