Wreckage/Phoenix

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. We remain on the shore of the North Saskatchewan River with the Baileys, including Liam, and also with Kristian. The weather has been uncomfortably hot, and we have called an early halt to work on several of the days, and for a variety of reasons.

Tearing out the lath & plaster

Cutting out the Window

Wendy and I celebrated our fifty-fifth anniversary on Friday, and that was certainly a good-enough reason! On Monday, we shut down early to attend a BBQ feast and celebration of Canada Day! What a feast it was—thanks especially to Guido who laboured many hours with the preparation and smoking of our meat dishes! Others of the gathering contributed the various side-dishes and desserts. On Thursday, we declared an appie night and retired to a local restaurant to enjoy some more good grub. And through it all, we also managed some great progress on both the destruction and construction ends of the enterprise.

Crush Delivery

Pounding in the Pins

The shed (not a garage) has been erected solidly in place on a treated wood foundation and with fresh crush to fortify that. Liam and Kristian did most of that work, and it turned out great.

Shed - locked in place

We have continued with the destruction of the kitchen dining area, and there remains some lower cabinets and much walls to be dismantled and removed. The new bathroom area is ready for construction, the new entry/laundry continues to wait for demolition to be completed. The plan is to salvage the sink unit, so it can be used in the new kitchen area until a later eventuality when that can be completed. We also plan to move the stove there so it can be used until it's time to replace it. Anyway, a Phoenix is slowing developing from the wreckage. Not so with the USA under the Orange regime: civil rights are being trampled, the innocent are being incarcerated and/or deported. And this week the GOP passed his dream taxation and support cuts policy. As a result, the bottom 40% will have less money and many will lose their health care and food support. It will take years to undo the damage he has already done. The USA markets have finally crawled into the green after six months of struggle as the USA GDP has fallen into the red. His vaunted 90 deals in 90 days is falling very short, and on Thursday, he reverted to his tariff threats. The markets bled red as a result! We hope there will be other thoughts before Monday. In sports, the Blue Jays are surging and have moved into first place in their division. The Riders have the week off and hope to have their starting quarterback back for the next game. 

Eric and Erica have been hosting us, and trying to keep up with their regular work. Erica has not been feeling well toward the end of the week. Eric joined us in the wreckage detail today, and we got a lot done. We have been sharing the meal preparations around the crew—we're eating well! 

Erin is on a Summer Cleanup campaign while Kristian is away. She sends us lovely reports of her garden producing, especially the strawberries, tomatoes and peppers. 

Travis and Joanna are sweating out an early summer heat wave in Thunder Bay. The dogs are coping just fine! Andrew is managing his classes and our house. Thanks

And that's enough for this week. 

American Dachau

Courtesy of Charlie Angus: Six months. That's all it took for the Trump regime to make the move from kidnapping people on the street, to threatening to strip political enemies of citizenship, to selling swag celebrating the construction of an American concentration camp. 

Six months.

Alligator Dachau

And Republicans say that merch promoting the newly built Alligator Alcatraz concentration camp is "going like hot cakes." Some detractors have called the camp Alligator Auschwitz, but this may not be the most accurate comparison. Not yet anyway. Because the death camps didn’t just appear; it took years of increasing brutality and degradation before they got to Auschwitz. It began at Dachau. Like the Trump regime, the Dachau concentration camp was established in the first months of Nazi rule. But unlike Trump, the Nazis were careful to downplay the barbaric cruelty of the newly-built camp. They presented propaganda photos to show “the truth about Dachau” as if it were a “model” prison for rehabilitation. Trump’s supporters on the other hand are gloating over the fact that this is no normal prison. It is a series of cages in the swamps of the Florida Everglades. And MAGA is celebrating a camp built for the express purpose of dehumanizing and brutalizing the people brought there.

The inmates being brought to Alligator Alcatraz are those who Trump claims are “poisoning the blood” of America. Language that could have been taken right out of Nazi speeches.

Will political enemies be sent there? You bet. 

Will mothers be thrown into the cages? Why not?

What about children? Expect this, too.

Trump has understood from the beginning that he can keep his MAGA supporters in the fold through the spectacle of cruelty. In fact, his tour of the concentration camp came as he was pushing through his "Big, Beautiful Bill," legislation that will rob health care and social supports for many of his working-class base. But Trump has always reassured the faithful that he will be even crueller to the people his base has been taught to despise. Being part of MAGA is feeling that you can always beat down on someone below you. And elected MAGA officials are fighting to get in on the act. Take for example, South Carolina Representative Nancy Mace who says she wants a concentration camp in her home state. Will she try to outdo Florida in the degradation department? No doubt. After all, the crueler the better.

That is why Alligator Alcatraz meets all the architectural requirements for the torture porn fantasies promoted by Kristi Noem and Donald Trump. On his tour, Trump took viciousness to a new level by gleefully describing how a detainee might try to outrun an alligator in the fetid swamps. When sadism becomes official government policy, you can bet that much darker abuses are around the corner.