Missive #91

Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: June 30, 1935

Nothing much happening here. I went to Reserve again yesterday and had breakfast at Ella’s again. Then did some shopping at Jake’s and back to the Park.

I am doing the month end house cleaning while trying to stay cool. We have had HOT days here, not as hot as much of the country but it has been hot for here. Since 20 June the high temperatures have been 90°F and above with it reaching 98 on the 26th. Not much chance of it cooling down much during the next 10 days if the forecast is correct. Maybe when the monsoon rolls in?

There is a good map showing the “Heat Dome” that has been covering this part of the country at A Colossal Heat Dome Is Literally Baking Much Of The Country. What the map does not show is that Tucson has been hotter than Phoenix and Yuma; over 100 every day since 14 June with a high so far of 113°F. My two prior camps being not far from Tucson are experiencing much the same although at a higher elevation not quite as severe.

Slowly reading that fist volume of The Story of Civilization where I have found some quotes.

“The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.” ― Voltaire”

“One quarter of what you eat keeps you alive. The other three quarters keeps your doctor alive.”. ― Ancient Egyptian Proverb”

Plato described the Athenians as loving knowledge, the Egyptians as loving wealth; perhaps he was too patriotic. In general the Egyptians were the Americans of antiquity: enamored of size, given to gigantic engineering and majestic building, industrious and accumulative, practical even in the midst of many ultramundane superstitions.

Already by the time of Hammurabi the art of healing had separated itself in some measure from the domain and domination of the clergy; a regular profession of physician had been established, with fees and penalties fixed by law. A patient who called in a doctor could know in advance just how much he would have to pay for such treatment or operation; and if he belonged to the poorer classes the fee was lowered accordingly. If the doctor bungled badly he had to pay damages to the patient; in extreme cases, as we have seen, his fingers were cut off so that he might not readily experiment again.

[Rome] …added little to it, protected it, and transmitted it as a dying gift to the encompassing and victorious barbarians. For barbarism is always around civilization, amid it and beneath it, ready to engulf it by arms, or mass migration, or unchecked fertility. Barbarism is like the jungle; it never admits its defeat; it waits patiently for centuries to recover the territory it has lost. (I added the highlighting)

I have also downloaded another book that I’ll be reading soon. Just read through the Preface so far and found this.

…[W]hen a state, such as the United States, has stagnating or declining real wages (wages in inflation-adjusted dollars), a growing gap between rich and poor, overproduction of young graduates with advanced degrees, declining public trust, and exploding public debt, these seemingly disparate social indicators are actually related to each other dynamically. Historically, such developments have served as leading indicators of looming political instability. In the United States, all of these factors started to take an ominous turn in the 1970s. The data pointed to the years around 2020 when the confluence of these trends was expected to trigger a spike in political instability. And here we are. — End Times by Peter Turchin

Dear Aliens: please stop playing footsie with us. Conquer the Earth and get on with it. We’re tired of the hide-and-seek. Quit jerking around: take over the Earth and do what any experienced dominant power does in newly conquered territories: — by Charles Hugh Smith