Broken Down Cars 2026

Whenever Beth and I take a road trip, we record the makes of the cars we see broken down beside the highway. We update after every trip and will continue to do so as we travel...As of the date in the title the totals were : Chevrolet/GMC -174 Ford- 105 Dodge/Jeep- 90 Honda/Acura-46 Toyota/Lexus-36 Nissan/Infiniti-33 Kia/Hyundai-25 VW-12 Subaru-10 Mazda- 10 BMW-6 Mitsubishi-5 Suzuki-3 Volvo-1 Also 10 unidentified vehicles of which we could not determine the manufacturer. This is by no means a scientifically accurate indication of the reliability of these brands, because we do not know the age and maintenance records of the broken cars and other important information. But generally speaking, foreign cars have a much better reliability record than domestic vehicles, and that pattern shows up in our informal observations.

A long time ago I heard people ask, "should the U.S.A. be the policeman of the world?", and along the way that question has defined wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and many others. Claims that we needed to save the world from communism, authoritarianism, socialism, hunger, or to preserve the flow of oil or some other commodity have been used to keep Americas 'military industrial complex' financed for decades. In this modern age the justification is fighting 'terrorism', and so the United States, or a few men anyway, declared war on Iran, and so it continues...Anyone who has read about Iran knows that it is run by brutal men who, in their lust for power, have suppressed women, free speech, and other human 'rights' that most Americans take for granted. Their ideology has been the spread of Islamic influenced ideas in opposition to notions of democracy-to the point that, according to ideology expert Hannah Arendt, "'orthodoxy' becomes a kind of logical certainty—a fixation on a pseudo-scientific conception of reality as an ultimate, unquestionable truth. It is at this point that ideology “ruins all relationship with reality.” So, like a fundamental Christian who is unable or unwilling to consider any possible description of reality other than the bible inspired depiction of God, Jesus or Creation, there is little argumentative reasoning with such a one minded person, religion,or government...Unfortunately, there is no changing human nature either, and no international fight against "terrorism" will succeed any longer than temporarily in any more than a few places. All of the policemen in all of our American cities and all of the rules of civilization in our constitution have not stopped crime. The people in power here and in Iran-or anyone who wants to challenge 'authority'- simply make up ther own rules if what they want to do is not sanctioned by normal rules of behavior....So I have no solutions for human nature, and simply killing everyone eventually becomes 'whack-a-mole' until some fundamental evolution of the human psyche is attained. I do not imagine anyone alive today will witness that. But I am not hopeless, and to behave well in your own life and resist those who would oppress you is honorable. It is too early to tell what the "excursion" in Iran will solve, or not solve, except perhaps to make the violence and destruction so complete that everyone grows tired of it, or is unable to wage it for awhile, and peace is achieved until next time.

Tucson, Sedona and Beyond

...When Beth and I left Pennsylvania on February 27th, we were suffering from colds/coughs and driving through snow and below freezing temperatures-conditions in Warren that had persisted almost continuously since Thanksgiving. We proceeded south to the Florida panhandle and through Texas and New Mexico to an Air B@B near Tucson for two weeks, then north to Sedona and another Air B@B where we are now. As our illness subsided we hiked various trails along the way, including in Bowie Fort monument, Chiricahua Monument, Saguaro National Park,Tonto National Monument and a half dozen or more obscure places we discovered on the map. The western deserts are filled with so many inspiring views and rock formations that one begins to expect them as normal entitlements that accompany every hike. The crowded trails here in Sedona are because of Redrock unique to the area (...such as the 'Bell Rock" in the picture) and supposed spiritual energy emanating from "vortexes" of energy near here. We cannot attest to the latter, although I do recall feeling something positive when I walked through here in 2007, and had even commented on it to a resident despite having known nothing about its history. The weather has been mostly sunny and 60 to 80 degrees since we crossed the Mississippi, so after exploring this area we will be travelling north to explore Utah depending on how the weather unfolds in March.

Marjorie Taylor Greene's finally awake look from the inside:

>> from her interview with Kim Iverson>> ..."Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said President Trump’s Make American Great Again slogan was a “lie,” saying his first year back in office was focused on obliging wealthy supporters. “I think people are realizing it was all a lie. It was a big lie for the people. What MAGA is really serving in this administration, who they’re serving, is their big donors,” Greene said in a Wednesday interview with radio personality Kim Iversen. “The big, big donors that donated all the money and continue to donate to the president’s PACs and donate to the 250th anniversary and are donating to the big ballroom,” she add "The former Georgia representative recently resigned from Congress, after airing concerns over the future of health care premiums and the war in Gaza, citing fractures within the GOP and falling out with Trump and MAGA, despite years of loyal support for the president. On Wednesday, she said the people who truly benefit from backing Trump are financial benefactors, telling Iversen: “Those are the people that get the special favors. They get the government contracts, they get the pardons, or somebody they love or one of their friends gets a pardon.” Since the start of the second Trump administration, the president has encouraged wealthy sponsors to provide private contributions for his political endeavors, including the construction of a White House ballroom and the celebration of the 250th anniversary of America’s founding. Greene criticized the favoritism for Trump’s wealthy allies and also slammed the president for focusing on foreign policy rather than problems at home in her interview. “It’s the foreign countries. They are running the show here. It’s the major big corporations and what is best for the world. That’s really what MAGA is. We are seeing war on behalf of Israel, we are seeing the people in Gaza, innocent people in Gaza, hundreds of thousands of them completely murdered so that they can build some new real estate development. Money can pour in and everybody can get rich there in the new Gaza,” she told Iversen. “And we’re seeing a whole plan play out, which is really a new world order. It’s a new way of doing business. And that’s the — it’s kind of like the ‘Scooby-Doo’ meme where … they pull the mask off the bad guy,” Greene continued. The former lawmaker alleged that the MAGA movement “isn’t really about America or the American people.”

Miscellaneous Observations

>...I have been reading a new book called ‘Stalin’s War” by author Sean McMeekin, which relies on unclassified Russian documents released after 1990 that challenge long accepted popular histories of World War 2. Conventional histories of that war focus on Hitler’s atrocities; this book details the absolute butchery and corruption of Mr. Stalin. It details the atrocities of the Russians-the executions and expulsions to labor camps-of conquered Polish, Lithuanian and anyone else deemed “enemies” of Communism in Stalin's mind. It details the groveling…yes, that seems to be an accurate description…of then President Roosevelt's efforts to please Mr. Stalin with what was called a “Lend-Lease” policy by which millions of dollars ( billions in today's equivalent) of military and civilian materials, from tanks to butter to uranium to secret patents, were given to the Russians at no formal cost and with no formal agreements of being repaid. There were numerous Russian spies in the US government influencing policy to the point that Roosevelt sometimes favored Stalin over Churchill and America when deciding what and where war materials were sent and what battle plans would be implemented. All the while Mr. Stalin proffered lies and refused to accommodate American requests to the point of imprisoning American pilots who were forced down in Russian territory-despite American pilots risking and sometimes losing their lives to help deliver all the aforementioned materials to Russia. The reasons for Mr. Roosevelt’s years-long catering to Russian demands are not fully clear to me…He seems to have been naive to Stalin's true nature-despite people advising him-people who were replaced as not being loyal enough to his desires. His primary enabler was a Soviet friendly adviser named Harry Hopkins. The end result was the spread of Communism over much of eastern Europe and into China. It must be noted that Mr.McMeekin is a 'contrarian' historian to some other historians, and a man who argues from a succinctly anti-communist perpective. The main conclusion I learned was the utter depravity and disregard for human life that Mr. Stalin possessed, and which has been an unfortunate aspect of the Russian culture to this day. The parallels to Mr. Putin and the complicity of Mr. Trump to Russia seem obvious to me; the Russian disregard for human life in Ukraine(Putins soldiers are forced forward to be slaughtered or risk being shot by their own ‘officers’ if they refuse) and Trump's total lack of moral clarity in resisting him are similar. What really is disturbing is the depths of the infiltration of Russian influence in the 1940s and the modern day campaign of misinformation by Russia made even easier by the internet. Fortunately, the Europeans remember the destruction of the last century and are resisting the attempt by Mr. Putin to expand his empire. > ...I also just learned about algorithmic pricing that has enabled corporations to maximize profits through online Apps. by charging the most that a specific consumer will bear based on the gigabytes of data they have amassed on them over the past 20 years. They simply charge different customers-unknown to those customers- different prices for the same item when using Instacart or another app, which maximizes profit individually on each person... Capitalism at its most legally insidious…Probably explains why Walmart does not have to charge ‘pick up’ customers for the service; by charging one customer more than another they assure themselves that their service will be profitable. No doubt a profitable 'average' is applied to in-store pricing. This helps explain some of the "inflation" blamed on Co-Vid, Biden, tariffs and other excuses people use to describe simple greed. It also helps define the continuing transfer of wealth from the average Joe to the rich. Meanwhile many workers at these companies need government welfare like SNAP to survive...

Winter

I walked this road near Pittsfield, PA earlier, 1 and 1/2 miles along which a bridge has been detoured for nearly two years. The detour only affects about a dozen homes, so the priority for its replacement is low, and reflects funding, light road use and other factors that rural areas struggle with. The original bridge was a stone and concrete arch scarcely more than one car width, and the new one likely will be a concrete structure typical of modern construction. The house across the river is the dwelling most affected, although because of the nearest town's location, the occupants would rarely approach from the direction I walked. The detour is an inconvenience only when one has to travel directly south, which requires a 4 or 5 mile looping circle…It will be interesting to see how long construction takes, considering that the I-95 bridge in Philadelphia that was destroyed in June 2023 was replaced permanently by May of 2024, with a temporary bridge functioning within 12 days. The urban necessity of high volume traffic showed how efficient modern workers can be when not constrained by bureaucracy and other factors-which to me was gratifying after observing how slow the wheels usually turn....As for the pigeons, my eye naturally went to the rebel on the left who decided to turn the other way

Pin Oak

Five years ago this Pin oak started as an acorn that Beth found in the garden, probably dropped there by birds from mature oaks growing about 3 blocks away....We put it into the small pot and set in on a rain barrel where unfortunately, it was eaten to a stick twice by deer. Both times it regrew its leaves, so its tenacity to survive encouraged us to plant it into the yard in 2023, where it has thrived to its present height. Insects, particularly Japanese beetles, have been its main antagonist,but we set out beetle traps which minimize that threat. Pin oaks are native Pennsylvania and live between 80 and 120 years,growing to an average height of 70 feet, more if conditions are favorable. This particular individual seems to possess remarkable genes and an unstoppable will to live, so we expect it to easily outlive us.