artisanal mulch
Spring up here (northern Vancouver Island) is still playing it coy. This April and May have not been as warm as recent years. It got down to 4 C. (40 F.) last night and I remain in long sleeves when I venture out. However, I courageously continue my chopping up of bark into mulch.
Dedicated readers will remember that I’m making mulch from the bark we’ve amounded from splitting firewood for 20 years. So I sit in front of a chopping block, hatchet in hand and refreshing beverage in other hand, as I reduce the exterior covering of alder and fir trees to ground cover.
Other than being mindful not to chop off a finger, my thoughts wander as I listen to old CD’s and cassette tapes. Yesterday, while re-relishing the Thompson Twins, I had two Prime Thoughts: (1) I’ve had this Thompson Twins tape 40 years; and (2) since I’m hand hewing this bark, I’m technically creating artisanal mulch. These astonishing insights required another refreshing beverage.
If you enjoyed Prime Thought #2, kindly go to You Tube and look up “Maker Series: Artisanal Firewood/CBC Radio”.
Anyhoo, despite/because of Trump’s relentless attack on All That’s Good, his approval ratings are steadily dropping. It varies from poll to poll, of course, but Real Clear Politics’ aggregator has Aging Orange down 14 points since re-entering office. He started at +7 above water. And support of his strengths — immigration and the economy — is waning as well.
The most intriguing poll is a recent one by PBS/NPR/Marist that found Donny Jay losing favour with rural voters. He won 63% of their vote in 2024, three more than he did in 2020. But it’s down to 46, just one point more than disapproval. Small wonder he wants to defund PBS and NPR.
I’ve long thought of the U.S. electorate in thirds: one who will never vote against Trump, one who never will vote for him and one up for grabs. After living many years in Missouri, Kansas and Louisiana, I never thought the farmers would ever abandon the GOP. I hope I’m wrong.
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Anchor Struck 
As you know, I know the unfortunate truth of how Kansans and Missourians have consistently voted AGAINST their better interests the past 40 or so years, after we have gradually evolved to appreciate the true benefits and popularity of the once-stigmatized as “socialist threats” programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, VA, Head Start, OBAMACARE and many other departments or programs that DJT and DOGE have tried to destroy…the last 70 years have proved that democratic programs benefit the common person while “trickle down economics”- which benefits ONLY about 1% or less of our country- has yet to show tangible benefits for the rest of us. Farmers, still verbalizing way too much trust in DJT, were among the very first to be startled at how badly the tariffs will and are already beginning to hurt their bottom line. True small businesses, not like the LLCs that that Trump dynasty owns: pretending as if they really have over 500 “small businesses, also know and are preparing for what may become a brutal Christmas shopping season if Donnie doesn’t back down. Even with all the most recent concessions Trump made on tariffs for autos made in Mexico/Canada, those ever-popular $80K-$100K pickups our most loyal Trumpers prefer to buy and drive are going to go up a lot–I do not think most people owning them actually afford them easily-I think they cut out other essentials to drive the big, tiny mechanized-penis-symbols…maybe enough…just enough minds could change so as to change just enough GOP Reps and Senators that they might go to Trump as Goldwater and Co did back in the day when Tricky Dick was still commander in chief and told him “leave or we throw you out”…of course, maybe not…as Dennis Miller once said often (prior to evolving from libertine critic to right-wing nut), of course this is just my opinion…I could be wrong.
Semper fi
JB
Well observed and reported, JB. I don’t know how anyone listening to Trump babble about Alcatraz or tariffs on foreign films cannot consider he might be getting senile. The closer we get to mid-term elections, the more likely the GOPers might have to make the Nixon move. Aging Orange’s recent interview with ABC’s Terry Moran was truly worrisome. He just couldn’t accept or even process the fact that a photo of Abrego Garcia had been altered to show MS 13 on his hand. And thanks for the heads up on Dennis Miller. I never could take to him. Semper Fi and my best to the Colonel