Diary

Spring is really getting started here, and the plants are taking off. I've decided to vacuum the back porch once a year after the pollen, because it turns yellow – that should occur soon. There aren't many insects at the moment. This is the best time of year here to be outside. The wildlife is active now, and, besides the birds, I've seen a beaver, a red salamander and a fox. Emily Dickinson would love Furnace Brook. My yard is in pretty good shape. Last year, there was a little more work to do because the previous owner hadn't done much before departing in 2023. At present it is fairly low-maintenance. The birds are all back, but there don't seem to be any living on the house right now. My tomatoes are doing well inside and I will be planting them outside whenever the temperatures look reliably warm. This year I will be growing only three plants, and will protect them from deer for the entire season. There is a deer trail passing through the rear of the yard, and, when the plants are growing, they come over to check them out. Last year, besides damaging the tomatoes, they feasted on hostas. My tomato bed is very easy to maintain, and this year the soil contains far more worms than it did last year, probably because of the soil improvements that I made.

Since the beginning of April I've been making an attempt to keep my investments up with market trends. Sometimes I was 70% stocks, 30% bonds; sometimes I was 40% stocks, 30% gold, 30% bonds, and now I'm 70% money market, 30% bonds. My ratios of American and foreign stocks have also vacillated. It's pretty obvious at this point that Trump doesn't have the slightest idea what he's doing, and he has one of the weakest cabinets since the Great Depression. I won't make any changes until there is more clarity regarding economic policy.

It's still too early to say with certainty how politics will proceed in the U.S., but it generally seems to me that Trump has dug himself into such a deep hole that he is nearing the end of his political career, and that this is going to end badly for him. Because of his narcissism, he tends to misattribute his success to special talents that he doesn't actually possess. It was a fluke that he was reelected: the Democratic Party was in disarray, and ignorant voters mistakenly believed that he had sent them stimulus checks during the pandemic. This time, his actions are causing what could be the early stages of stagflation: the exact opposite of what his voters sought. He is sliding in the polls, and he probably lacks the resources to reverse that trend. Furthermore, the billionaires seem to be tiring of him: he is costing them money. He is nearing a point where, because of his growing unpopularity among ordinary Republicans, he won't be able to control Congress. Similarly, there is enough integrity within the Supreme Court to act against him when he violates the Constitution. I don't think that he's in a position to launch a military coup with the loyal Pete Hegseth – which is probably something that has already crossed his mind.