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.

Continuing Ed.

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Daily writing prompt
What’s the best online course you’ve ever taken?
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I have never taken an online course. The closest I’ve come is trying to learn Spanish on Duolingo. I was doing that for a few months.

I think about it every now and then, but would need to decide on subject matter I find relevant or interesting before making such a commitment.

Celebrity in different forms

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Daily writing prompt
Which celebrity would you love to meet, and what would you talk about?
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The concept of celebrity has always rankled me. Admittedly, some of my resentment comes from pure envy and jealousy. But most of it stems from a belief that there’s such a shallowness to it, and the shallowness pervades society, in some ways.

Some peoples’ fifteen minutes lasts longer than others’, but there’s this overriding feeling that it’s all a house built on sand, and the mystique that develops is a mere consequence of seeing someone on a big screen or on a stage and getting caught up in the “bigger than life” dynamic that makes us swoon or get weak in the knees or gives us a feeling that we’ve just seen a unicorn or something.

I think I’d like to meet Stephen Colbert, Paul McCartney, or Sheryl Crow. And, as I’ve mentioned before, Bobby Orr, who comes by his celebrity by way of being a rare breed of athlete who somehow remained humble while transforming his sport.

I don’t know what we’d talk about. It’d be some form of picking their brains. I’d have to devise a list of questions that weren’t so trite and stale that they’d want to walk away after 2 minutes.

As I’m writing this, I’m realizing that “celebrity” can also include people like John Lewis, the former civil rights leader and Congressman from Georgia. I would love to have had the honor of sitting in his presence, asking him questions worthy of the time he’d free up so we could talk.

The Next Sacrificial Lamb

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It’s all about appearances.

The new Press Secretary is just another pretty face who gets fed what she needs to say, taking softball questions from three friendly outlets at her first press conference and really not distinguishing herself. She’s got some ground to make up, though I see no reason for giving her the benefit of any doubt. She’ll try to make Donald happy, and if she can’t, he’ll find the next bleach blonde.

No one will touch Ms. Sanders, when it comes to doubling down and shoveling the bullshit. Wow, she was a bulldog, a real arteest. Donald must have loved her. For a time, anyway.

Relatively Fearless

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Daily writing prompt
What does it mean to be a good person?
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It’s someone who shows up, who has a heart, who listens and cares, who maybe isn’t quite as concerned about finding “balance” all the time. Someone who drains their batteries more often than others, who does more than preach, who isn’t really worried about what others think of them when it comes to doing the right thing. And there is often a right thing.

Maybe someone who lives out Romans 12:9-18, whether or not they’ve ever set foot in a church or opened a Bible.

Messiah Complex

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Peter Thiel and the rest are detached from reality. They live well in their own reality, and of course they think so far out of the box that they have no patience with anyone they perceive as not keeping up, which is a substantial percentage of the rest of the world.

Yes, Thiel and Musk and others may be groundbreakers and visionaries, but they seem to think they have exclusive rights to deciding how the future should go for all of us.

This is concerning because they appear not to think much of humans as a species. Thiel has said, out loud, that evil isn’t bad, since at least evil people are “competent” and they’re “getting something done.”

Money equals power. It’s a reality, but it is also a stone-cold monument to vanity and hubris and indifference. It inhibits sight and deadens the heart.

This miniscule minority of billionaires? Turns out they can get Trump’s attention anytime they want. They appear to be the puppeteers, along with Xi and Vlad.

Window Dressing

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Daily writing prompt
What are your strategies for SEO?
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I don’t have any strategies for search engine optimization. I didn’t sign up for this with site improvement in mind. This has always only been an outlet for putting thoughts to paper, so to speak. The words, meager as they are at times, are really all I care about. I’m grateful for those who read and like what I post, but I’m resigned to the fact that I will never develop a huge readership.

Maybe I should work on more clever or catchy titles for the posts.

Natalie, what are you feeding him?

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The Nobel Committee is in no way obligated to defend or explain itself to Donald Trump.

I can’t believe this is even a thing. Isn’t the world tired of this man baby by now? The fact that he feels snubbed—again—is just the latest evidence that Trump indeed lives in a bubble, that he is off his rocker.

He starts a war with Iran that looks to be expanding into something larger. He blames Mr. Zelensky for the world’s fossil fuel shortages, cozies up to Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, and has the audacity to think he’s owed the Peace Prize?

A tired trope revisited.

Please, Nobel Committee, just ignore this guy. He is perhaps the most needy, immature, and pathetic human being on earth.

Then again, we’re not talking about the Epstein files.

An Absurd Place To Be

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Did anyone think it would trend in any other direction? All that’s left for Trump and the rest is the heavy-handed stuff now.

In some ways they’ve become quite predictable—draconian Executive orders, favorable Supreme Court rulings, WTF distractions—but the thing everyone fears is what will ultimately be rolled out: attempts at martial law, unwarranted monitoring of polling places, bald-faced terroristic threats, and violence. It’s the whole desperate times, desperate measures thing anymore.

Maybe our law and order folks will stiffen their spines and just say No.