{"id":1984,"date":"2026-11-01T03:58:46","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T03:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zeppscommentaries.online\/?p=1984"},"modified":"2026-11-01T03:58:46","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T03:58:46","slug":"the-dark-quarter-with-winter-comes-dark-and-scary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zeppscommentaries.online\/?p=1984","title":{"rendered":"The Dark Quarter — With winter comes dark and scary"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dark Quarter<\/b><\/p>\n

With winter comes dark and scary<\/b><\/p>\n

Bryan Zepp Jamieson<\/i><\/p>\n

October 31st<\/sup> 2026<\/i><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a period on the Celtic calendar, beginning around November 4th<\/sup> (Samhain) and ending around February 3rd<\/sup> (Imbolc) that I think of as \u201cthe dark quarter.\u201d Days are at their shortest on average in that period, culminating in the winter solstice.<\/p>\n

In the North, the sun is a distant memory, and even here in more temperate climes, the solar panels exist only to shield the roof from rain and snow. For most people it\u2019s a time of getting up in chilly dark mornings and going to bed long after the sun has set. It\u2019s a merciless time for people with seasonal affective disorder. Even dogs get depressed.<\/p>\n

For those of us who are early risers and \/ or have cats in the house, reverting to standard time gives some respite; for myself, sunrise today according to my dumb clock, is 7:40 AM. Tomorrow\u2019s sunrise will be at 6:41 AM. Sunrise\u2019s latest morning here is January 4th<\/sup>, at 7:34 AM. So while the universe may have other ideas, our political latest morning of the year was today. Yuck.<\/p>\n

If we were to stay on permanent Daylight Savings Time like Trump wants, sunrise in early January would be well after 8:30 AM. The further north you go the worse it gets until you reach the Arctic circle, at which point it\u2019s moot what your clock thinks; the sun has had enough of this shit and is in hibernation.<\/p>\n

While the biannual time change takes the edge of the diurnal vagueries caused by our axial tilt (yes, MAGAts, it really is a globe and it really goes around the sun!) the medical and economic costs of the time change are manifest. By now you might have guessed that I\u2019m not a fan of permanent Daylight Savings Time, but in fairness, being on Standard Time permanently has its own drawbacks. The long summer evenings would be an hour shorter, and the earliest sunrises would be around 4:35 AM, a time most people associate with baker\u2019s hours or the dog throwing up in the kitchen.<\/p>\n

That said, it\u2019s time for a clumsy and jarring segue; America is about to enter its own darkest quarter. (OK, so \u201cdog throwing up in the kitchen\u201d is at least a transitional phrase!). The election will be November 3rd<\/sup>, and if the polls are to be believed, Republicans will be swept from power in the House, and in all likelihood, the Senate. In normal times, that would occasion a sigh of relief and a return to the liberal standards that made the United States the envy of the world.<\/p>\n

But these aren\u2019t normal times. The President is a madman propped up and succored by some of the vilest capitalistic fascists this side of the Third Reich. Trump won\u2019t accept the results of the election. We can say that much for certain. And the people behind him, including most of his cabinet along with billionaires such as Elon Musk won\u2019t mind sacrificing as many of us as it takes in order to secure power.<\/p>\n

Rumors are rife, of course. Among the ones I\u2019ve heard this week: he plans a massive escalation of military action, up to and including nuking Tehran, or conducting a lightning invasion of Greenland. He will contest any and all election results that result in election losses, including the ridiculous \u201cDon Simpsons\u201d case in Alaska. He may try to seize ballots. There\u2019s a chance he\u2019ll deploy ICE and even the military to voting polling places. He may order his dog Mike Johnson to not allow the new Congress to convene. He may unilaterally implement policies ruinous to the United States and its people, but highly profitable for himself. He might simply flee to Russia armed with America\u2019s remaining military and diplomatic secrets, a down payment on a lush dacha. He may try to instigate a major insurrection and declare martial law. Any and all of these possibilities are in the air, and should not be simply dismissed.<\/p>\n

And yes, none of them may come to pass, and I\u2019ll be very happy if that happens. But I\u2019m not going to pretend they can\u2019t happen, and of course those are only the \u201cknown unknowns\u201d.<\/p>\n

We do know that the drunken and incompetent Pete Hegseth has fired most of America\u2019s military leadership, including a fresh round just this week. We know that he has had anti-aircraft batteries installed around Mar-a-Lago, although with drones capable of reaching Florida across the Atlantic or anywhere in North America, that\u2019s probably a sensible precaution. We know that some of the most damaging elements of the \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill\u201d will come into effect, ruining millions of lives in America. And it\u2019s not just rumor to say that he is desperate and probably frightened; it\u2019s been obvious from his ongoing temper tantrums at his rallies and the disturbing increase of neurological tics and twitches and lack of physical and emotional control that are disturbing signs of dementia.<\/p>\n

The dark quarter will end in January when the new Congress is seated, and if we haven\u2019t stumbled into the world\u2019s first for-profit world war, or had the military seize state capitols. Unless Trump has fled the country or died (my favorite rumor since it involves the least bloodshed and trauma) danger will remain. For a balanced evaluation of these rumors, visit today\u2019s Guardian<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And of course the billionaire class will still be there, and still present its own grave danger to America. Polls suggest that they have spent enough money to defeat the billionaire tax that is on the California budget, and I will say this: no people who believe the ultra-wealthy should be coddled and obeyed can ever call themselves \u2018free\u2019. At best, they are vassals. Jefferson and Madison recognized the danger of such an aristocratic class. Jefferson even urged Madison to include in the Constitution a 100% Estate tax, arguing that \u201cland should belong, in usufruct, to the living.\u201d After Trump is gone, the billionaires will remain, a far more intelligent and subtle enemy.<\/p>\n

But for now, let\u2019s sigh and change our clocks, and hope we\u2019re all around at the far end of our darkest quarter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Dark Quarter With winter comes dark and scary Bryan Zepp Jamieson October 31st 2026 There\u2019s a period on the Celtic calendar, beginning around November 4th (Samhain) and ending around February 3rd (Imbolc) that I think of as \u201cthe dark quarter.\u201d Days are at their shortest on average in that period, culminating in the winter … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Dark Quarter — With winter comes dark and 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