So this is Christmas

 ok  I ma a bit late in my Christmas musings, but I have been busy and still struggling to get better from the wicked infection- NOT COVID- that had me at Kaiser multiple times in the last four weeks

I have been thinking, again, about Christmas in general and Christmas in America in particular.  A certain faction of Mag-nuts have declared that we have  a "war on Christmas"  and wring their tiny hands and wail about it.  So... they shuttered or burned your Churches?  No?  They imprisoned or murdered you faith leaders?   No?  They forbade you from celebrating in your homes?  No  They simply encouraged you to acknowledge that {GASP!} not everyone celebrates Christmas and to wish people "Happy Holidays"?  OH Man's inhumanity!

Get over it.

The F- your feeling crowd certainly had a lot of whining these days.  The guy who said "let's Go Brandon" to Joe Biden is crying that he is being criticized for his behavior.  Someone forgot to tell him that Freedom of Speech comes with consequences and you can SAY what you want but people  with opposing views can also say what THEY want.  It's how it works, Dude.

We have to stop making stupid people famous for doing stupid things.

I did not get to finish this in a timely manner, and I need to post a New Year's Eve blog....  Maybe coffee will help.

Random thoughts on the news

 As the song says "reading the news and it sure looks bad"

 School shootings.  I remember during the pandemic the Right was all over social media saying  "GEE there have been no school shootings and no mall shootings" as if the fact that there were no LARGE gatherings of people for these yahoos to shoot at were not the reason.  The thought it was St Donald of Grift  who was responsible.  Now there is that horrific shooting in Michigan and there were unconfirmed rumors of copycats.  Let's stop making criminals famous.  I breathlessly await Marjorie Taylor Greene's offer to this kid of a spot on her staff.  I hope he does not go to trial, just pleads guilty and is put away forever for trying to kill a bunch of people.  His folks bear some responsibility, but his mother famously posted a fawning letter to tRump, so not much hope from that corner.  I  wonder if she thinks  he will help her son post bail?

I see his "parents"  were on the run and caught in Detroit, hiding in a warehouse. I am looking for a better word than "parents"  for those monsters who created this kid and basically shaped him to be what he became.  WHO THE HELL BUYS A 14 year old a semi-auto handgun as a CHRISTMAS PRESENT?  ok, if you are into hunting ( and I know people who hunt and it's ok if you don't just kill the animal and leave it to rot after taking the trophy from its carcass)  The text from the mother are particularly telling.  "Learn not to get caught"?  The fact that they ignored this kid's cry for help just slays me.  "Nope, no problem with OUR boy.  Its all you libtards out there.  GO SECOND AMENDEMENT. " sheesh.

I hope they throw the book at them.  Ethan is guilty of murder.  Period. They gave him the gun and probably the rhetoric that shaped him into doing it.

Why do you plead the 5th if you are not guilty?  Looks like that lawyer tRump conned is ( in the infamous words od Doonsbury's Mark Slackmeyer )GUILTY GUILTY GUILTY.  The truth will out.  C'mon, why are you doing this?  Even your Master said "Only the Mob takes the 5th"  yep.  Why didn't he just fall back on what tRump does in HIS depos?  "I don't recall"  "I can't remember"   and "I do not know that person"  

What are they trying to hide?  Does tRump think that his Presidential papers are his private possession and HE alone has jurisdiction over them?  That is the problem with electing someone with NO governmental experience and the hubris to believe he knows everything and does not need to learn. I pray that the courts will force his hand.   If he is not guilty of what they are investigating, why is he trying so hard to stall them?

Looking for "good" news, I am having trouble finding much.  Everything Congress needs to do to improve this country is met with outlandish resistance by the Republican Party.  It's almost as if they want us to fail.  I wonder who is lining their pockets to make that a reality.

The Defining moment of our Generation

 Every Generation has that moment, the one that takes away your innocence and shocks you forever.  For my parents, that was Pearl Harbor, my daughter, 9/11  For me it was the very public assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Like everyone old enough to remember, I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news.  I was five years old and in the back seat of my mom's green Bel Air ( the one with the wings).  When the news came on the radio, my mother pulled over to the curb at the corner of Bartee and Van Nuys and sobbed.  She kept saying "oh that young man" although Kennedy was older than both my parents.  I was on my way home from Kindergarten.  I think they closed the schools for a day or so so the nation could mourn,

On this day, as I usually do, my thoughts turn to the last survivor of his children, Caroline, who is just a bit older than me.  It must be awful, every year to have the news reflect on the murder of her father.  This year is particularly heinous, as the Mag-nuts decided that not ONLY would her father appear at Daley Plaza to announce his support of Trump for President, but her late brother John would announce his co-candidacy as Trump's running mate.

These people have skipped more than one groove here.  But they believe it wholeheartedly and I bet they are sending not-quite-candidate Trump barrels of money in support of the pairing.  The things that strike me, in no particular order, are:

• Despite persistent conspiracy theories that Jack Kennedy was kept alive and was in some secret wing of an unnamed hospital, he would be 104 years old.
• They found John and cremated his body.  There were autopsy reports.
• The Kennedy Family are DEMOCRATS and despite one or two crackpots ( I'm looking at YOU RFK , Jr) would not be in the same philosophical camp as Trump ( the Kennedy Family believes that to whom much is given, much is required, Trump has an opposite view.)
• They MUST be confusing JOHN with that not-part-of the Joe-Kennedy-line guy in Louisiana, John Neely Kennedy. HE would probably personally wet himself if Trump came calling.

On this day, I think about what our country might have been, had JFK lived.  Would we have gotten into Vietnam?  Probably.  Would the Civil Rights movement have moved faster?  We took his quest to get us to the moon seriously, but what about the rest of his plans.  Can we ever know them?

On this day, I will ponder this:

“Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.”

May it be so.

Drought of words

 I still have not been writing much, although I have a lot on my mind, when I actually sit at the keyboard, I am too numb to put words together in a cohesive way.  Grief and stress have a way of combining that paralyze the soul.

I talked with my doctor- a very kind and very smart man who has brought me back from the brink with my asthma, whose name is Dr. Hu , which is pronounced "Who"  Ok  I'm a geek but I get a kick out of that.  He agreed that stress can be a huge trigger.  Chris said I need two weeks at the beach, with nothing on my mind but the waves and maybe a good book.  Not gonna happen anytime soon, but it is something to think about.  I am planning for retirement, knee surgery and a trip to England and MAYBE Germany.  These are my dreams and darn it I am keeping my eye on them.  Hope springs eternal.

I have been watching the Kyle Rittenhouse news.  He's gonna skate.  It's a travesty of justice, but he will.  The judge is so sympathetic to the "poor kid"  Let me say this, he went there looking to hunt people and was surprise when his prey fought back.  Now he is playing the "protecting himself" card.  If he hadn't crossed state lines, armed with a firearm meant for hunting humans, he would not have had the need to "defend himself"  It wasn't like he was protecting his family farm or his grandmas store.  He thought he could get into a real life "Call of Duty"  and when he did, he found himself in over his head.  If the situation was so dangerous there, why were the only people who were shot, shot by Kyle?  Even the COPS didn't shoot anyone.  He killed two people, one of whom was trying to stop him from killing anyone else.  I have zero sympathy for him, but he will become a Far Right Hero and be paraded around by them like the prize pig at the County Fair, until he becomes a liability.  Enjoy your Momma's basement Kyle.  That is where you will wind up, although prison should be in your future and would be if you weren't  white.  If you had been a Black teen, there would not have been a trial at all, the cops would have shot you when they saw you with the weapon.

Did you see TFG ( the Former Guy) "sent his ambassador" to Serbia?  The guy went?  Geez.  Other countries are laughing at him.  His dementia has reached dangerous heights.  every day, he and his minion perform acts of treason.  They all need to be locked up.

I see slimy scuzzy dirtball Steve Bannon was arrested.  Too bad he was released pending his trial.  In his photos he always looks like he's been drinking all night and sleeping in his clothes for a week.  He needs a delousing and a bath.  Executive privilege, My Aunt Fanny.  I will say this again, there are no matters of National Security contained in the information regarding the attempt by Trump and his allies to overthrow the Government.  Except that all of them will be rightly tossed in jail when when everything comes to light.

I guess I had more to say than I thought.  I need to get my head into the work game this morning.  I will be working from home until I retire, apparently.  Chris bought me a new smaller chair which makes me feel les claustrophobic in the tiny corner of my kitchen.  I retire next June.

politics, politics , politics

 I have not been writing much, if you noticed.   Chris and I are still reeling from the sudden loss of his mother on October 7.  Anna was a wonderful woman.  I always called her my "bonus"  I married Chris and got Anna as my mom.  My own mother died of Alzheimer's in 2004.  I think if my mother had lived, Anna and my mom would have been as thick as thieves.  Anna's sudden passing has us grieving and scrambling to get her affairs in order.  It is something of a mess.  If you are reading this, please send up a prayer that we get it all resolved with a minimum of trouble.  it's complicated, but thankfully there are no family squabbles going on.  We are all on the same page with this.  It WILL be ok ( positive affirmations!!!)

I am SICK to death of the childish behavior of the Republican Party. They want to block everything and prevent people from voting to promote The Big Lie.  Sad that people believe it with NO evidence, just the constant repetition of it  Joseph Goebbels was right.  If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth.

The whole "Let's Go Brandon" thing is just.... sad.  Poor Brandon Brown has a promising career ahead of him , now he has been dragged into the stupidity of some people in the Republican Party.  I saw ( but did not read) that NASCAR is doing something about it.  Keep on Keeping on Brandon. I am not a NASCAR fan, but seriously people....

I saw the gathering in Dallas, waiting for JFK and JFK Jr. to  appear and declare Trump the winner and announce that John would be his running mate for 2024  May I state the obvious?

1. John F Kennedy died in 1963 He is not being kept alive in some secret location and he has not had a miraculous recovery from being shot in the head
2. John Jr died in 1999. See above remarks- his plane nose-dived into the ocean.  No one survived the crash. they found his body and he was cremated and buried at sea. not coming back, no.
3. the Kennedys are DEMOCRATS- maybe the Right is confused with that Representative from Louisiana, John Neely Kennedy.  He would probably be glad to be on the ticket with Trump, so maybe those Trump/Kennedy banners can be reused .

The insurrectionists are getting sentenced to prison, but I think they are getting off cheap.  I think they should ALL be forced to be deprogrammed.  Maybe that group that Pence supports to "deprogram " gays might be repurposed to assist people who swallowed the Trump Kool-Aid.  

Speaking of Pence, what do you think HIS political chances are now   ( Snowball in Hell?)

The Infrastructure Bill is on Joe's desk awaiting his signature.  Wanna bet he doesn't use a freaking Sharpie to sign it?  I wonder if he will have a media event surrounding it, or just sign it and move on.  There is a lot on Joe's plate. 

Worst President ever?  Keep believing that.

I know a lot of Right-wingers who are blaming Joe for everything, obviously they are not economists but here was the good news:

• Employment numbers are up.

• Medical science has developed a pill that is over 90% effective in treating the Covid 19 virus in infected people.

• The January 6 Commission is issuing subpoenas right and left (lol) and some of Trump's inner circle are giving up the goods.  

I have to ask, why is Trump fighting so hard to keep his information from that day and days leading up to it a big ol' secret?  Innocent people would want all the truth in the light of day.  I highly doubt there are questions of National Security, ( aka secrets from the Ruskies) that are contained within.  and WHY didn't the Secret Service put Trump in a secure location?  He was partying it up in the Oval Office when it was all going down.  I wonder how long it will take for a staff member who took videos to release it to save their own skin?

Time will tell.

darn Amazon

 I am in a group that reads and writes reviews for new books, called Hidden Gems.  Recently I wrote a review for a book called "Entitled" ; a sweet story about the inner thoughts of a book while  she travels, searching for her  Reader and her Forever home.  Apparently, the algorithms on Amazon do NOT approve of the word "sucked" in a review, even though it was used in a positive way ( I wrote that I got "sucked into the story)  Amazon dinged me and refused to print my review without a re-write.   I rewrote this:

"I received and e-copy of this book to review and I must admit I thought that a book about a book would be too weird.  I found myself taken in by "Serendipity of Snow"  or "Serendipity"  as she travels from hand to hand in search of her Reader and her forever home.  She has a few adventures, meets interesting people and Books along the journey.

I'm gonna have a hard time tossing worn out paperbacks in the recycling bin now."

Still Amazon is picking over ever letter and not publishing my review.  Maybe the word "weird" will also induce pearl-clutching in some book loving circles and I will be cast into the pit of remainders.  Seriously.  I got a long finger wagging e-mail from Amazon with their "policy.  It was a head scratcher and I could only surmise that since "sucked" has both negative and sexual connotations, the Thought Police at Amazon freaked out.    Last night when I tried to post THIS rant on Facebook, it too freaked out and ate my wonderful scathing rant.  I smell a conspiracy here.

In any case, I am hopeful the new review gets posted.  The book is a first time author and it was sweet.  Based on the book I think she is working on another one- probably not about a book, while it was clever, I don't see a series in this vein.

Draft poem

 My doctor says

that dreams

are what's bothering me

rising to the surface

What, then 

are nightmares

When seemingly sweet characters

appear in my movie-style dreams

and become monsters

I cannot change back