What’s It Gonna Be?

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The Supreme Court ain’t so supreme, of late.

Maybe it has always benefited from a certain undeserved mystique- its members aren’t gods, after all, just human beings tasked with important work. Justices over the years have produced many landmark decisions seemingly based on a sincere and fair treatment of testimony and applicable law, even charting new ground from time to time, especially when it comes to human rights and bodily autonomy.

Lately, though, there seems to be some backsliding. More suspicion, more doubt, more finger pointing in the direction of a hand-picked conservative majority on a mission to, oh, I don’t know, tighten things up, bring us back to a “better” place that pleases straight, white Christians everywhere.

In the midst of the Trump mess, the court seems to not want to stick its neck out and abide by the 14th Amendment provision of forbidding insurrectionists from running for office. Though he hasn’t been accused yet, many know what Trump did and who and what he really is, and how dangerous he has become.

So maybe it comes down to how closely the court adheres to the letter of the law, along with its efforts to reel in the temptation to react to certain public sentiment, and to what many are seeing with their own eyes: Trump running roughshod over, and even making a mockery of certain norms that have long served as guardrails.

Sometimes it looks like nothing can be done to make him go away.

Phlegm

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I think about the fact that Donald Trump will be President for our 250th birthday, and it saddens me. There will be a pall over the marble-tiled, gold-leafed celebrations.

The patriotism for show, the shallow pride, the shameless, disgusting manner in which he will make everything about himself. Tone deafness as art form. Ego run amok. There he is: our President. A stooge, a visionless, heartless bridge burner, ignorant of history, old and always vindictive. Aren’t we all so proud?

For all the times that someone has said, “You know, you have to hand it to him…,” as if there’s some aspect of his style, his being, that’s commendable? Stop doing that.

Pathetic

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The latest government shutdown. It’s like clockwork anymore.

It’s all about leverage, a tool, a way to make a statement, a protest. Hostage taking. Yes, we are apparently trillions of dollars in debt, but needs don’t suddenly disappear. Balancing this budget would take a Herculean amount of compromise and open-mindedness, never mind belt tightening. Is it mostly futility anymore?

How do we balance a budget that has rubber stamping and borrowing built in, and now a recalcitrance unmatched in the history of the country?

Who would be minding the store? Who could possibly keep an eye on it all, and shielded from those who can’t keep themselves from helping themselves? Right now, it’s a bunch of kids in a candy store, with a gutless bully at the helm.

For A Rainy Day, Maybe

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Daily writing prompt
Something on your “to-do list” that never gets done.
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It would have to be going through boxes of things that have traveled with us in our moves, are taking up space, and really need to be gone through. This includes pictures and slides that should be archived somehow– saved in a photo album or digital format– along with souvenirs, journals, etc.

It is an undertaking easily ignored, put off, and otherwise disregarded. I can think of a hundred other things I’d rather be doing.

Nothing Fancy

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Daily writing prompt
What’s your favorite thing to cook?
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I cook breakfast most mornings, alternating between some form of eggs with avocado toast and sometimes homemade sausage gravy, and a high-octane oatmeal with blueberries, an apple, cinnamon, banana, and some combination of seeds, mostly sunflower.

There’s only one recipe I have memorized, and that’s a chicken wild rice soup, with a bit of white wine added at the end to kick it up a notch in flavor. We like it because it tastes good and usually leaves leftovers we can use for a couple more meals.

A Variation on Daytime

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I came out to the kitchen a bit before 5 this morning, and saw that the Moon was casting its light through the window that looks out on the back yard. It was quite bright, and I had to get a picture of it. Of course, the pic won’t do it justice, but it still looks kind of cool. The snow pack adds to the ambience.

I found and find it amazing that the brightness is reflected light that has traveled 240,000 miles to bathe our countertops with enough light to mix a batch of pancakes.

Hardware Relic

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Daily writing prompt
Write about your first computer.
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We got it with some help from a program at the place I worked, sometime in 1990 or maybe early 1991. The system included a CRT monitor, which sat atop the small CPU, which sat on the desktop; a keyboard and mouse, and we sprung for a dot matrix printer. I can’t remember the basic specs– RAM and hard drive space, etc.– but they likely were measured in kilobytes. The monitor measured 10 inches diagonally, maybe a bit more, with an amber tint.

It was quite expensive, relative to what we can get today for 1/4 of the price, thus the reason for the financial help from the program at work. We should have held onto everything– might be worth something as an antique. It got us through 4 years of seminary and into 1996, I think, when we awaited the arrival of a big box decorated in a black and white cow motif.

Something’s Always Looming

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An army of redactors can help them sleep better. It took an extra month or so, but more Epstein files have been made public, and we’ll see what’s still left in the way of breadcrumbs. We already know the Trump administration will call it all a big nothing burger, as well as pinning blame and pointing to all the Democrats who flew on Epstein’s plane or sailed on his boat or spent time on his island.

Trump will emerge unscathed, as usual, and we’ll move on to the next crisis—election interference, more payback, ill-advised policy decisions, etc.

Taking Stock

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Daily writing prompt
What’s the thing you’re most scared to do? What would it take to get you to do it?
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The default answer is jumping out of an airplane, but that’s too easy. In terms of relevance to the present day, I’d have to say committing to a position on what we see happening in this country right now, and then acting accordingly– whether it’s adding my voice and physical presence to the demonstrations, being ready to defend my neighbors, regularly submitting editorials to the local paper, contacting our Congress members. Just being more vocal and actively involved.

One might think there have already been enough precipitating occurrences and insane verbiage to prompt a response of some sort from just about everybody. Maybe what I’m most scared to do is admit that we’re where we’re at, that we’ve sunk so far, so fast.

Friday

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I’d been wondering where Tulsi Gabbard had gone—hadn’t heard from or about her for a while. Turns out she’s sniffing for dirt in the Georgia election case, still part of the grand Epstein cover-up, most likely looking for something that won’t exist but will cause consternation among the talking heads at Fox News and elsewhere and give Republicans in Congress something else to crow about and use as their own diversion.

We should stop asking how low they can go. They’re nowhere near the bottom.