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.

Rubber-stamped advocacy

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Markwayne and Rand had a bit of a testy tete-a-tete to lead off Mullin’s confirmation hearing yesterday. A real tone setter.

Another delightful Trump appointee sits before the committee, being grilled by Democrats (and Paul), but soothed and defended by Republicans with the now-familiar defense of just another folksy guy with a different style than Kristi Noem. Qualifications are an issue with just about any Trump appointee, but none of that matters for Republicans on the committee, since it’s a Trump appointee and the mission is to just push him through.

The Dems are always the worrywarts, uncomprehending of folksy charm and apparently hidden qualifications that the Republicans somehow always see. It’s smarmy, and sickening to watch. These hearings end up being mere formalities, regardless of qualifications, or lack thereof.

Wow– how bad an option was Matt Gaetz? Was he intentionally thrown out there as a trial balloon, a sacrificial lamb, as a way of making anyone who came after him look like a saint?

Pinnacle

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Daily writing prompt
What was the best compliment you’ve received?
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I often felt as if I was on the outside looking in, when it came to grasping certain tenets of systematic theology. Truthfully, my eyes often glazed over the way they did in high school trigonometry class.

It must have been a seminary requirement, since I wouldn’t have chosen such a class as an elective, and one with a term-ending final paper. Ten pages, single-spaced, annotated, in which I was to summarize and share my own systematic distillation of the Christ event.

I was hoping just to get a passing grade on this project, but ended up getting a 39 out of 40– which I now realize might have been an arbitrary, tongue-in-cheek way for the instructor to let me know he liked what he read.

The last page contained this grade and a paragraph of commentary from the instructor that included what, in my view, were surprisingly kind and complimentary words. It’s one of the few items I’ve kept from those years at Gettysburg, because it represented an accomplishment, in my mind, and recognition from one of the intellects in this particular field of study.

I was and still am proud of it, even as I’ve grown to question the whole enterprise and would most likely write a very different paper if I had to do it over again, and didn’t care about graduating.

A Slight Miscalculation

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Where does he get off, angling for help from allies to keep the Strait of Hormuz open?

First of all, what allies might he be talking about? I didn’t realize we had any allies left who were on speaking terms. He’s been doing such a great job of alienating everyone, I figured by now we’d pretty much be on our own. Well, except for Israel. They’re like two peas in a pod—Trump and Netanyahu.

It’s really rich—Trump just demanding that NATO pony up, take on trying to extricate his sorry ass from a debacle of his and Bibi’s making.

Hold your ground, western Europe and others. There’s no need to indulge this farcical brain trust.

The Scenic Route

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Daily writing prompt
You’re going on a cross-country trip. Airplane, train, bus, car, or bike?
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Most likely car. It gives us flexibility, since we wouldn’t be in a terrible hurry. Of course, getting there by plane in a few hours, compared with a few days, has a certain appeal. Not only would we be traversing all manner of hill and dale and urban areas, needing places to stay, spending money on food and fuel and tolls to get out there, we’d have to do the same on the way back– unless we took a different route and really turned it into a lengthy sojourn.

We’ve occasionally talked about how nice it would be to take the train across Canada, maybe make our way to Alaska, but that’s a pipedream. A transcontinental excursion by car might probably maybe be more likely.

The world, their oyster

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Daily writing prompt
Who is the most confident person you know?
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Confidence, I think, is often present in someone who’s curious and a bit fearless. I’m not sure I know or have known anyone who is always sure everything they do or try is going to come together the way they want it to. It’s more that they’re not afraid to try things, and not afraid of failure. When they set their mind to something, or when their curiosity is piqued, they go into action. They abide by a “Why not?” mantra, and little is off-limits to them.

So… three people come to mind– a sister-in-law’s husband, and an uncle of mine on my mother’s side, along with his wife– my aunt, rest her soul.

Chronic Angst

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Daily writing prompt
What strategies do you use to cope with negative feelings?
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Sometimes I mope, even at my age, which is admittedly sad. Most times I’m able to recognize that the negative feelings have a shelf life, that they’re sometimes self-inflicted, and that I’m often my own worst enemy. I’ve never enjoyed a very high opinion of myself, though I can muster enough self-confidence to get me through a day.

What I have ongoing trouble with, and what often looms like a dark cloud and puts me in a sour mood, is my sense of where we’re heading as a species, given the current leadership at the top here in the U.S., and other places around the globe. There have been too many days of throwing up hands, looking skyward, and muttering under my breath– even when a certain narcissistic, egomaniacal man child was out of office.

Let’s just say that I often don’t like the odds of being able to recover from the damage being inflicted, which is why so many of my blog posts may sound like the ranting of an angry, glass-half-empty sad sack.

A certain “leader of the free world,” whose last name rhymes with “rump,” has long worn out his welcome, so I’m grateful for this outlet where I can get things off my chest and try to deal with a steady diet of lunacy that was foisted on us over a decade ago and continues unabated.

How D’ya Like Me Now?

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I hesitatingly use any form of the word “lead” when talking about Donald Trump, because he doesn’t know how to lead. He only likes to say words and watch people jump, or grovel.

As a concerned observer, it looks to me like The Donald has no problem with leading us into another Vietnam. A large contingent of Marines and accompanying hardware are either on their way or already in place near Iran, apparently to do something big and dramatic to Kharg Island.

Pundits and anchors are already murmuring mission creep, which is confusing, because does anyone know what the mission in Iran even is? Is it about nuke development, regime change, maybe an extension of the fallout from October 7, 2023 somehow? Or is it more about one last gargantuan, costly, ill-advised distraction from the Epstein files and an attempt to sabotage the November elections?

Are these Marines so focused on following orders, so mission-driven, that they can’t stop to think for a minute about why they’re doing what they’re about to do? What are they being told? Are they being fed a line about how America is depending on them to be successful, that it’s all for the cause of red, white, and blue and apple pie? Or is it more about being manly, talking big, “giving no quarter”?

How can there be anyone left who thinks Donald Trump or anyone in his Cabinet or wider administration is at all capable of rational thinking? And where and how does all this fit in the Project 2025 playbook?

This is starting to have the feel of a Little Big Horn.

Immersed

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Daily writing prompt
What activities do you lose yourself in?
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Sometimes sitting at the piano and playing, sometimes reading a good book, or putting a blog post together. I’m totally engaged when out on the golf course, couldn’t care less about what time it is. Every now and then there will be a show on the TV that has me marveling at how quickly it went by, and the same for the rare times we actually see a movie in a theater.

Anything where boredom isn’t a factor.