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.

Spaghetti at the wall…

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It’s Trump in a nutshell. His proposed $5000 payout is all we need to know about how he thinks: life is one big transaction. Morals and character are nowhere to be found in his lexicon. He’s just all-in on the belief that money is the ultimate arbiter, the universal language of even the woke libtards who have found a way to get under his skin.

There is nothing that can’t be solved with a greasing of the skids, a good hearty bribe. As if another ludicrous lump sum that practically everyone must realize we’d never see could convince people to forget about the stack of empty promises that have come before.

He is a one-man show, always aiming low. Nothing in his world is a collaboration, a discussion, or a consultation. In this case, it’s just the next command decision. The next dumb, unwarranted, unconstitutional and desperate shot from the hip.

Go to hell, Donald.

Laissez-faire

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Daily writing prompt
How does your mindset affect your financial success?
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Directly. I’ve never had much discipline or drive– at least in the direction of financial success, so such success by just about any measure never materialized for me, for us.

I have always recognized that a certain restraint is important, and saving money– in a savings account and by other means– along the way makes all the sense in the world. But I’m at the point now where saving for a rainy day doesn’t make as much sense. In fact, it grates on me sometimes.

Even though it will always be sensible to think about finances with a certain discipline in mind, I am quite willing to spend a bit and enjoy life without always worrying about some eventuality that may or may not ever unfold– especially when one looks around and realizes that maybe we should be taking occasional opportunities to travel or otherwise indulge ourselves while we still can.

Kitchen Table Issues? Hardly.

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Why the incessant focus on burning bridges? Why this push to isolate ourselves in the world? What are the ends to Trump’s and the Heritage Foundation’s means? As interested observers with skin in this ridiculous game, we need to know why there is such an unrelenting focus on pulling the rug out from under everyone except the handful in power.

One term wasn’t enough. He hung around and stunk the place up for the whole of Biden’s term, then somehow managed to convince 77 million people that he was worth having around for one more term of his own.

Has anyone ever bothered to look into the 2024 results? How could so many remain so clueless? Sorry, but there is no benefit of any doubt anymore.

Forrest Gump may have been on to something. Stupid is… 

District of America

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They’ve tried and are still trying to tear everything down and replace it with nothing. They’re still firing experts and essential workers and either replacing them with inept sycophants or not replacing them at all.

There are vacuums and brain drains all over the place, and the infuriating reality is that this is all being done on purpose.

This is their plan. This is Project 2025 coming to fruition. These are hateful people who need to be stopped.

Trump may be the most visible, the most vocal, the most annoying. But he’s not the main idea guy, by a long shot. He’s been perfect for the role of circus clown, though. Especially now that his marble loss is escalating.

Complicated?

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I’m just a male who by nature cannot speak from experience about the affliction in question. That said, the Clancy murder case in Massachusetts involving 3 dead children and a mother apparently suffering from post-partum depression has been front and center the past few days.

There’s a hung jury now, and much of the commentary I’ve heard focuses on the need to understand PPD better than it’s been understood to this point. What doesn’t sit well with me—and, yes, this is without the benefit of hearing courtroom testimony—is the nagging thought that this mother and/or her defense team are cunning enough to get sentiment behind her, use post-partum depression as the reasonable doubt that will absolve her of any criminal wrong-doing. Because she just wasn’t herself…

I assume motives and character and potential duration of the psychosis were addressed during testimony and apparently did not emerge as issues, with the possible exception of one juror, when it came to trying to reach a verdict. It is difficult for me to accept the possibility that this condition was so all-consuming and affectively obstructive that the mother was unable to recognize or process the gravity and depravity of what she was doing.

She strangled her three children ranging in age from 8 months to five years, and her defense team apparently convinced all but one juror that their client was psychologically, emotionally, and in all other ways incapable of comprehending the abominable nature and consequences of what she wrought. And thus, should not receive jail time for her actions.

There’s a certain reasonableness to that, but it still feels a bit too convenient. And now that Clancy’s lawyer has asked Donald Trump to pardon her, I’m a bit more skeptical.

Unsettled

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Daily writing prompt
Have you ever regretted reading a book — which one and why?
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Yes and no, because it hastened an evolution in thought, added dimension and fuel to a line of reasoning and a change of heart that had already been stewing in me during the last three or four years I was an active ordained Lutheran minister. It cast something of a pall over all the years I spent telling people to keep the faith, that there was something hope-filled to hold onto. I had gotten to the point where I could no longer rightfully and honestly do that, which contributed to my decision to retire five years ago.

Then, two or three years ago, I read Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari. I had seen interviews with him on The Daily Show and with Stephen Colbert, I think, and his ideas intrigued me. His delivery felt well-reasoned, and sincere. He didn’t strike me as being just another pompous skeptic.

So, rather than buying a Kindle version, which I would normally do, I bought a paperback version of the book and read it and marked it up and came away more thoroughly convinced– though still not totally convinced– that religion is a construct, a crutch. Something humans create in the absence of knowledge and evidence and explanations, a hedge against death. A God of the gaps that my seminary professors critiqued and downplayed and warned us beware.

Of the modest number of books I’ve ever read from cover to cover, this is the one that has burrowed the deepest into my psyche and given me much to think about.

Low Point

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He won’t be remembered for anything helpful or good. In fact, he may not be remembered at all. Many will do their best to forget him.

He just wanted to build stuff and slap his name on it, put his mug shot on a $250 bill, line his pockets with one grift after another. His ambitions had little to do with competent governance and leadership.

His run has been one long, visionless power trip and stupendously pathetic and ruinous shit show. His second term might be called a revenge tour, a journey to ignominy and irrelevance. All at great cost, a cost he just can’t be bothered by. He’s freakishly selfish and shallow, over-the-top garish, and completely oblivious to any need besides his own.

He only cares about his legacy, in a way similar to how a mutt marks its territory.

You’ve outdone yourself, Donny. Kudos.

Opposite Ends

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Daily writing prompt
What’s the best and worst airport you’ve been to?
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TVC– Traverse City, Michigan is my new favorite. My first impression is that of a small, accessible, functional airport, staffed by people who do their jobs well.

On the other end, I’d have to say ORD- O’Hare International in Chicago. There have been very few layovers which didn’t involve a long, sometimes brisk walk from one terminal to another. And it’s always so crowded, which shouldn’t come as a surprise, since it continues to hover around the top of the list of busiest airports in the world.

Familiarity breeds… something

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Daily writing prompt
What’s the most annoying trope in books or movies?
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I’m not sure this would be considered a trope, but CGI is still quite detectable even in brand new films. The tech itself is still less than convincing, even after all the iterations and advances, in all the Marvel Universe movies, for example– which I only ever see the ads for but have never actually watched, other than the early Spiderman and Iron Man offerings.

The tech/special effects have improved since the first round of Superman movies with Christopher Reeve, but it still doesn’t do much for me.

Then there are the usual themes concerning human relationships and bad guys and quests and macguffins– not necessarily annoying, maybe just so plentiful and tired, over-used, contrived, yet necessary for advancing a plot.