The case

 Up around 10, packed one more thing to make a round 20 items to mail/FedEx. 

The trial's still on. The Dump's side is actually making what sounds like a solid case. What it's sounding like is, the Dump's speech was not any more violent than a whole lot of things Democrats have been saying. The difference is that we don't have Democrats gunning down political enemies, assaulting capitols, etc. 

So what appears to be solidifying is that the difference is that the Republicans have followers who are teaming up, coordinating, and committing crimes but without direct orders from the Dump. This is called stochastic terrorism I believe. 

The best parallel I can think of is Charles Manson, who never committed any illegal act, but talked his followers into doing them. But he went into the slammer for good. 

But I think what is going to happen is the Dump's side will convincingly say that the Dump was merely talking, and that the real problem is groups like the Proud Boys and the 3%'ers and so on, and coordinated shadowy groups and they'll be hunted down on insurrection and conspiracy chargers. The Dump will waddle off to live his twilight years yelling at clouds. 

This parallels what I've observed about Hitler. Hitler himself was fairly harmless; it was all the capable people who fell into line behind him. Hitler wasn't even a rapist, seemed to pay his bills OK, fought bravely in WWII where he was a messenger, a dangerous job. And if human beings were as nice as we think we are, he'd have been a commercial artist given to political rants at the beer hall after work, and there's never have been WWII at least not in Europe. Probably just the Pacific War which would have ended much more quickly, thus no time to develop the Bomb. Sorry Grandfather, no Bomb work for you! 

The white nationalists are a real concern, though. They've proven that they'll happily kill anyone, certainly anyone of color but also whites who oppose them. They truly have been stacking up bodies like cordwood. In the prosecution side of the trial there was made mention of a high level of  coordination in the insurrection, of colored tape used by groups to identify each other and so on. Of highly coordinated plans. 

I think the end result will be to steer attention away from the Dump, and toward the danger of these white terrorist groups. Which is how it should be. 

I had some real trouble getting motivated. The plan was to take the 20 packages I had packed to the post office and FedEx first, then come back, clean up, and go to the bank. Instead I ended up listening to the trial and eventually cleaned up and left here at 2. My bank appt. was for 2:30 and I was still there several minutes early and that's with a couple of stops to get rid of trash and sake bottles and to drop off some survival rations at one of the little free libraries. 

I went to the bank and it was the usual tableau out front. A fat black lady and a homeless Hispanic guy sitting on the bus bench. A bus zoomed by, probably because it doesn't stop at that stop, and the fat black lady got up and waddled off. The Hispanic guy then lay down for a much-needed nap on the bench. 

The people at the bank were super nice as always. But, I need to renew my driver's license. I'd let it expire and they keep track of such things on their computer so we had a laugh about it and I said I'll get on it. 

Next stop was the Amazon hub where I picked up the 2nd "Chickenhawk" book so I can read about how the guy's life went after he returned from Vietnam. And the first Masayuki Koga shakuhachi book. And this weird breathing-exercise thing that's over $20 on woodwind brasswind but about $7 on Amazon. And more bubble mailers of course. 

Then I puttered over to Nijiya and locked the bike. I needed a new soup bowl, because the one I have is developing a crack in the bottom. So I went over to Kogura's and looked at their rather expensive, made in Japan bowls. A cool one with a dragon was over my budget, but I saw one with a fishnet pattern I could afford and I love the pattern - I was a fishing fool as a kid. So I got that and had a nice little chat - about how my old bowl's cracked and that's all I need; miso soup all over the place. 

Then I decided to walk up to the other corner and around, and went into The Arsenal. They've expanded, and I complimented the guy in there on how fast the cleaned the graffiti off of this big stone that's out front, some kind of "friendship" stone sent over from Japan. Nice guy and we had fun talking about stuff. They have a *lot* of art stuff there. I told the guy about the shakuhachi and said that I need to learn to make them from PVC so I can afford to just hand one to anyone who's interested. 

Finally I went into Nijiya and got my shopping done. There was a skinny white guy who looked scruffy and had a tie, apparently worn so long that the part around his neck was like a string. He wanted to buy beer. I tried to tell him about TAK Market but then he went in. The guy at the door and I talked about TAK, and then it was my turn. I thought I saw the skinny guy looking over the sushi and started to tell him about TAK Market and he turned around and it wasn't the guy. Woops! That's the 2nd time now I've mistaken one white guy for another white guy. 

By now I was pretty hungry and of course my shopping included a small bento, some extra fish, and a beer. I debated whether to eat and then go to the post office afterward, or have a handful of sunflower seeds and do the post office first, then eat. 

I fought a cold wind back to here and Lo and behold, the lunch truck was still out front although it was 4. I rode up and called out, "Am I glad to see you!" I picked out a deep fried burrito thing and she wanted $1.50 and I gave her the $2 I had on hand. She gave me "change" in the form of another, baked not deep fried, little burrito. 

I got back in here and got out the hot sauce and ate. I left for the post office run at 5. It really felt like it's going to rain, which it's predicted to tomorrow.