A Mild Complaint!

     As a fan of women's basketball I have a mild complaint. There are a few games to watch during the week. Sunday comes and the women's games are stacked up from morning until late night. At one point this afternoon I was tracking four games simultaneously. Why not spread them out? The answer of course is sexism. Men's ball games are on every night of the week, with most women's games on Sunday. For much of the season they have to compete with NFL football, which we all know is morally bankrupt!

   OKAY, I've said and of course it will not change anything but I feel better.

Takk for alt,

Al

It's time for a random photo. These are Okinawan Homes behind a vegetable garden, the tallest plants are banana "trees". 1962 

In Case You Missed It

 From Heather Cox-Richardson...

"At midnight tonight, most of the agencies and services in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will run out of funding, as popular fury over the violence and lawlessness of federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Border Patrol made Senate Democrats refuse to agree to fund DHS without reforms. And yet, because the Republicans lavished money on ICE and Border Patrol in their July 2025 budget reconciliation bill—the one they call the One Big Beautiful Bill Act—those agencies will continue to operate. The 260,000 federal employees affected by the partial shutdown will come from other agencies in DHS, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Transportation Security Agency (TSA), and the Coast Guard.

A measure to fund DHS passed the House by a majority vote, but in the Senate, the filibuster allows the Democrats, who are in the minority, to make demands before the measure can pass. On February 4, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) sent Senate majority leader John Thune (R-SD) and House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) a letter outlining demands Democrats want incorporated into a measure to appropriate more funds for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Those demands are pretty straightforward. The Democrats want federal agents to enter private homes only with a judicial warrant (as was policy until the administration produced a secret memo saying that DHS officials themselves could sign off on raids, a decision that runs afoul of legal interpretations of the Fourth Amendment). They want agents to stop wearing masks and to have their names, agencies, and unique ID numbers visible on their uniforms, as law enforcement officers do. They want an end to racial profiling—that is, agents detaining individuals on the basis of their skin color, place of employment, or language—and to raids of so-called sensitive sites: medical facilities, schools, childcare facilities, churches, polling places, and courts.

They want agents to be required to have a reasonable policy for use of force and to be removed during an investigation if they violate it. They want federal agents to coordinate with local and state governments and for those governments to have jurisdiction over federal agents who break the law. They want DHS detention facilities to have the same standards as any detention facility and for detainees to have access to their lawyers. They want states to be able to sue if those conditions are not met, and they want Congress members to have unscheduled access to the centers to oversee them.

They want body cameras to be used for accountability but prohibited for gathering and storing information about protesters. And they want federal agents to have standardized uniforms like those of regular law enforcement, not paramilitaries."

Takk for alt,

Al

 

Then, too, there's this, also from Cox-Richardson

"In his testimony, Lyons maintained that ICE is indeed prioritizing the removal of undocumented immigrants with records of violent crime, enabling Republicans to claim that Democrats who want to rein ICE in are deliberately endangering public safety. Camilo Montoya-Galvez of CBS News reported this week that documents from DHS itself show that fewer than 14% of the nearly 400,000 immigrants arrested in Trump’s first year had either convictions or charges for violent crimes, with fewer than 2% either charged with or convicted of homicide or sexual assault."

Barn Yard barbie not only shoots dogs...

"Last night, in a deep expose of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her advisor Corey Lewandowski, Wall Street Journal reporters Michelle Hackman, Josh Dawsey, and Tarini Parti described a department in chaos. Noem and Lewandowski—who the authors say are having an affair and essentially run the department together—are using DHS for their own aggrandizement with an eye to elevating Noem to the presidency. The reporters detailed the focus on image, the decimation of ICE by firing or demoting 80% of the career field leadership that was in place when they arrived, the apparent steering of contracts to allies, and Noem and Lewandowski's excessive demands, including “a luxury 737 MAX jet, with a private cabin in back, for their travel around the country.” DHS is currently leasing the $70 million plane but is in the process of buying it."

VA Medical Center is Near

       Had an appointment to see my primary care physician at the VA today. There were three items on my agenda. 1. Move my annual primary care appointment from May to February; 2. Order socks; 3. Move a prescription to the VA. Mission accomplished.

       In May I'm usually at The Little House and in February at the OFH. The VA gives me free socks. Prescriptions are cheaper at the VA, most are $8.00. The VA doctor can now access my health records from my civilian provider. When I saw her a couple of weeks ago she ordered lab test so today the VA doctor was able to access the results. 

      My VA experience almost all positive and like this doctor.

Takk for alt,

Al

PS After he listened to my heart I asked him what he heard. He said "You'll live."

While driving a Studebaker!

 

'The detainees at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, the largest detention center in the U.S. for children and families, describe nightmarish conditions: moldy food, contaminated drinking water and limited medical care. In a letter sent to ProPublica, one child says the only medical advice they get from the doctors is to drink more water. “The worst thing is that it seems the water is what makes people sick here,” he wrote. At least two cases of measles, a highly contagious and often deadly disease, have been detected in the facility, leading officials to lock down the jail. But for many parents, keeping their kids in Dilley is preferable to the alternative: staying in detention — and possibly being deported — without them." Huffington Post Takk for alt, Al

Collateral Damage!

      The ICE invasion causes much collateral damage. Many residents, here legally, are afraid to leave their houses. Consequently house construction is lagging for lack of workers. Many restaurants are short of workers, especially minority owned, and many have had to close. Numerous students are too afraid to attend school, so they are missing out on learning. School districts' reimbursement is tied to pupil days so, with many students staying home, the districts are suffering financially. 

   On and on it goes, all to keep orange man from facing up to the Epstein Files.

Takk for alt,

Al

The Epstein scandal is taking down Europe’s political class. In the US, they’re getting a pass.

Heather Cox-Richardson

"As of yesterday, members of Congress who sit on the House or Senate Judiciary Committees can see unredacted versions of the Epstein files the Department of Justice (DOJ) has already released. As Herb Scribner of Axios explained, the documents are available from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM on computers in the DOJ building in Washington, D.C. The lawmakers cannot bring electronic devices into the room with them, but they are allowed to take notes. They must give the DOJ 24 hours notice before they access the files.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act required the DOJ to release all the Epstein files by December 19. Only about half of them have been released to date, and many of them are so heavily redacted they convey little information. After members of Congress complained, on Friday, January 30, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said they could see the unredacted documents if they asked.

In a letter dated the next day, Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) immediately asked for access on behalf of the Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee, saying they would be ready to view the files the following day, Sunday, February 1.

After viewing the files briefly yesterday, Raskin told Andrew Solender of Axios that when he searched the files for President Donald Trump’s name, it came up “more than a million times.” Raskin suggested that limiting members’ access to the files is part of a cover-up to hide Trump’s relationship with the convicted sex offender, a cover-up that includes the three million files the DOJ has yet to release despite the requirements of the Epstein Files Transparency Act. One of the files he did see referred to a child of 9. Raskin called it “gruesome and grim."

Taxes...

     Today was the day to begin preparing my taxes for the preparer. With agriculture interests, etc., my filing is too complicated for me to attempt alone. All was going well until I discovered that the brokerage firm will not have a report ready until next week. Minnesota Soybean Processors, (MSP), with whom I hold a couple of stocks, sent a letter saying they are working on some complicated tax issues. Their advice was to file for an extension while MSP works out the details. When the brokers report next week I should be able to hand over my material. Once in the CPA's hands I can just wait to see what MSP sends. Last year their tax packet was about 30 pages! none of which I could understand.

Takk for alt,

Al

'"Nothing is certain but death and taxes" is a famous maxim regarding the inevitability of mortality and taxation, popularly attributed to Benjamin Franklin in a 1789 letter concerning the US Constitution. It highlights the unavoidable nature of taxes to fund government services and the certainty of death, often used to emphasize realism."  Internet 

Super Bowl, redux!

     Watching the replay of my favorite team winning was the perfect alternative to a football game last night. The women's game began at 11:00 a.m. local time to avoid the Bowl. My subscription to BTM allows me watch many games live and most on replay.

   Today, long-time friends came for lunch. Many years ago she I worked together and we've been friends since. Though we don't see each other regularly we stay in touch. During lunch I asked them, "So, who won the Super Bowl game last night?"  They looked at each other, looked blank, and she said "I think it's the one owned by a woman for gives money to charities."  Neither even knew the teams that were playing. Three at lunch, largely oblivious to the NFL.😀

    Tonight I'll watch Unrivaled basketball. Unrivaled is the one-year old league founded by Napheesa Collier and Brenda Stewart, both of whom are WNBA players. In this league there are only three players for each team on the floor. It makes for fast play, the floor is also slightly shorter, and emphasis on offense. The players all come from the WNBA and are divided into teams for the season. Being a WNBA fan I recognize all the players by sight. It's another great alternative to football and its season is when the WNBA is not playing. Much of the motivation was to provide an alternative venue for the players to playing overseas. Overseas play pays much better than the WNBA, however. a new agreement between the league and players is being negotiated. WNBA player salaries have been very low. Check it out if you like basketball.

Takk for alt,

Al