When we read about an Executive Order that changes the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America, we might ponder for a moment before realizing who’s done this. Even knowing that it was Donald Trump, we may still hold out for the possibility that there is a method to his madness, some plot twist or stroke of genius yet to be revealed.

This might be why he still gets away with doing the next ridiculous, hair-brained thing—people are wondering what The Donald has up his sleeve, when the brilliance of the tactic will be revealed.

Of course, there is no brilliance. It’s just the next dumb, infantile thing Donald does to distract from something else more consequential. So, we best keep our ears and eyes peeled, eh?

I’m sure Canada is beside itself.

It’s the time factor, as in, “How long, Lord?”

Well, that, and life is often blindsided by random viciousness and calamity, where one moment it unfolds in a nondescript way, and in the next moment it’s snuffed out by a thunderous, staggeringly massive, angry and other-worldly wall of water and mud and debris.

I’ve watched a few videos of the beyond-Biblical, epochal avalanche and flooding in Nepal, and I’m once again reminded that people will start asking where God was, or why such a thing could possibly happen to innocent people just going about their day.

And there will be nothing but crickets in response, or at best paltry efforts at letting God off the hook, or the old classic: “That’s life in a fallen world.”

What I’m becoming more convinced of is a more logical truth: life on earth is a crapshoot, and humans have a tendency toward believing that bad things can’t happen to them—even when they decide to populate topography like steep-walled canyons with a river running through it in proximity to the Himalayas and glaciers and avalanche threats.

Earth has no reverence for us. Earth is Earth, with its currents and ecosystems and forces that operate despite our attempts to harness or limit or abuse. Earth is dynamic. It may be wounded, but it will seek and find some level of homeostasis, with or without us.

As much as it troubles me to write these words, I’m becoming increasingly of the mind that God has nothing to do with this disaster, or us. And “How long, Lord?” is a mere scream into the void.

😦

One of life’s great mysteries: why boxing and MMA and the rest are called sport.

A primal proving grounds for attention-starved combatants? An outlet for anger issues, legalized mayhem and income stream? An indulgent escape for those who watch with hopes of a bloodbath or someone rendered unconscious, or worse? Sounds more like it.

It’s hard to know if it’ll ever happen, but I’m still holding out for an awakening.

I have no choice. It seems it might be our only hope—that Republicans arise one morning, look at their newsfeeds or network of choice and suddenly realize they can’t be accomplices anymore. They can’t ride coattails and compromise values. They can no longer prop up, humor, or feed an insatiable ego.

They miraculously grow a spine and finally tell Donald Trump to fuck off.

It’s always been all we’ve ever needed. We could have ended this nightmare a long time ago. Maybe not nip it in the bud but at least minimize the damage. As it is, there’s a monumental amount of fence mending in order, and if we don’t get started soon, it’ll be too late. Trust will be an ongoing issue.

Thanks, Donald. And Stephen. And Kevin and Russell, and all the MAGA voters and others who thought Trump might just be what we needed.

Beware the idiot who says he alone can fix things.

Are we there yet? Can we reach consensus on the indisputable fact that our President is a nut job, an unserious egomaniac who gets his jollies playing while many of the people he supposedly serves are eking out an existence and just getting by?

Isn’t it clear now? He’s running for his life, he’s always angry, probably ill, way more stubborn than an ox, and now engaged in a tit-for-tat with Canada, our long-time trading partner and friend. Little Donnie has his boxers in a bunch over Canada’s totally predictable and understandable retaliation for 50% tariffs that are currently set to go into effect in the new year.

Good for Canada! Punch the bully in the mouth and just let the renaming of Lake Ontario roll right off your back. “Lake America” will be a short-lived phenomenon, if it comes to pass, and it’ll be our latest embarrassment. We’ll be the ones who have to live with the childishness and try to ignore it, until a new administration arrives and removes all the golden calves and the spiteful map renderings.

Jeez, Donald.

And he’s not close to being done yet. Every day we move a bit closer to irrelevance. We isolate ourselves a little more. It’s hard to watch.

Recently, there was a headline in a well-known publication that asked, “Is RFK, Jr. winning or losing the battle against vaccines?” I guess I’m not clear on the phrasing, or why the question was asked in the first place.

As the query bounced around in my brain, a couple questions popped up in response. First, beyond the mind-numbing reality of his current status as head of HHS, why is RFK, Jr. part of any conversation pertaining to the benefits or dangers of vaccines– or any medical question whatsoever? And second, why is there a war on vaccines at all? Why speak of it in such a way?

I think I understand that any vaccine is going to be unsafe or ill-advised for a certain small percentage of the population, but that, on the balance and according to a majority of those who actually know about such things, they are safe and efficacious.

The fact that this is being spoken of in terms of war is unsettling, to say the least. It’s as if the whole enterprise is the brainchild of cold-hearted pharmaceutical companies who only care about the bottom line, or there is this unfounded fear among MAGA adherents and others that vaccines are the devil, a symbol of wokeness, somehow. It’s irrational to think this way, yet enough people are making noise over it that we have to waste time talking about it.  

I’ve never understood vaccine mandates to be the intentionally oppressive means of forcing preventative measures on someone. I’ve always understood them as being the reasonable recommendations of those who used to be trusted as having done their due diligence, done their homework, engaged in the trial processes and as a result stand behind the safety and effectiveness of drugs that keep us safe from horrendous, sometimes life-threatening diseases.

In the end, Bobby, Jr., please do the right thing and at least leave the choice of whether or not our kids are vaccinated to parents who do their homework. And let research surrounding these miracles of medicine continue.

Otherwise, just resign and enjoy your days foraging for roadkill.

It’s a bit frightening to think that the Supreme Court of the United States is sympathetic to Donald Trump’s, i.e The Heritage Foundation’s nefarious intentions. It’s a shame his lawyers aren’t as inept as the rest of the half-wits around him.

These jurisprudential whiz kids apparently are presenting a lucid enough argument regarding mail-in balloting that the justices have rewarded Trump with yet another victory.

I assume that the brunt of the argument lies in attempting to curtail voter fraud, which is the cliched and longstanding excuse for all the attempts at keeping Democrats from voting. This is the latest, and just in time to perhaps affect the outcome of upcoming elections in November.

My stomach turns once again, because the argument of fraud has been disproven over and over again. The SC has to know this, but they’ll defend their decision based on the arguments presented, which apparently have been good enough to warrant this closer look and yet another gut-wrenching win for this creepy circus.

Or maybe the court is simply in Trump’s back pocket. Even, somehow, afraid of him?