The Colorado Supreme Court took the bold step, the one the lower court judge couldn’t take for fear of reprisals? I hope the precedent has been set and others follow.

There is no earthly reason for Trump to have gotten as far as he has—other than certain Constitutional provisions and political assumptions which are now, finally, being questioned; also the aforementioned fear, and legal processes that can be slowed to a snail’s pace by appeals and creative jurisprudence—i.e., lawyers pulling out all the stops, doing and saying whatever it takes to keep their troubled client happy and one step ahead of the jailer.

Chances are better than 50-50 that Trump has never read Mein Kampf, or any other tome with a dictatorial essence. I’ve never been convinced that the slurry emanating from his pie hole at a rally has originated in his own brain.

When he’s reading from a teleprompter, he’s reading someone else’s venomous sludge, happy to say it out loud only because he likes the sound of it. Trump believes, or at least speaks, whatever he thinks will land and stick with his diehard and woefully misguided fans. As Rachel Maddow reiterated the other night, he says stuff and assumes a persona simply because it keeps working for him. There are still plenty of easy targets out there who keep responding to the dog whistle, and Trump is only too happy to oblige them. He’s like a fifth grader who gets egged on by his classmates.

On the other hand, have you ever listened closely to the reaction of the audience when he offers up one of his outlandish proclamations? It’s often less than whole-hearted. So, maybe there are people in attendance who just come for the spectacle, and who end up uttering, more than once, “Wait, what did he just say?”

Time to weigh in on TayTrav, or whatever the cutesy shorthand is.

Good for them, if they’ve found something in each other! I just hope Taylor isn’t headed for another song about another heartbreak. If that happens, then it’s not all bad news for her—she’ll cash in a couple times with an original release and then a remake, maybe even develop another whole movie about this latest not-so-private romance.

Sorry for the snark—it’s hard not to have had enough of the mindless stargazing and spectacle and saturated coverage. Enough is enough when it comes to Taylor Swift, but at least we’ve been treated to a fluffy diversion to the rest of the news.

And the curmudgeon signs off.

Vladimir Putin and people like him are useless in the world. Not exactly model citizens, but instead power-hungry relics, motivated by old, stale visions of greatness. They talk in riddles and not-so-veiled threats. They don’t value the lives of the people they govern, but see them only as servants, as available bodies, unworthy or incapable of making decisions for themselves. They can’t envision a world in which nations at least try to get along. They are suspicious, bent on calling the shots, intoxicated by the thought of staying in power until they die.

Putin in particular appears to have a bone to pick with the U.S., but get in line, buddy. And of course he’s now making threats toward Finland, since they are close by and have become part of NATO.

The concessions we’re forced to consider. I wonder if the leadership of Finland really wanted to become a part of NATO. But what choice did they have, really?

It’s a shame things have developed the way they have, nations not trusting each other, always spending outlandishly and unforgivably on defense and armaments and implements of war, having to make decisions not based on growing an economy or providing for the flourishing of its citizens, but more often influenced by what needs to be in place in case the shit hits the fan.

Speaking of spending outlandishly and unforgivably, North Korea is in the news again, because it fired its latest long-range missile, as a warning, I guess, after talks between the U.S and South Korea. Heavy sigh.

What is their deal, anyway? What is their purpose on earth, besides being a weapons depot for China in case things go south in that neck of the woods? What is the argument for spending a substantial amount of its money on war preparations? Or is it just a puppet regime at China’s beck and call, without commerce or trade?

What is North Korea known for besides another wannabe dictator and world player and a growing nuclear arsenal? What’s left for the population, for the North Korean citizenry itself? Are they all automatons, just scraping by so its leaders can focus on “more important” things, like nuclear warheads and such?

Wow, we humans are fucked up.

I feel no compunction to multi-task, and I don’t necessarily see it as a virtue.

I focus on one thing at a time. If I’m cooking a meal, I don’t have any urge to go do a load of laundry or catch up on reading or neaten up the living room. I am perfectly OK with tending to the task at hand.

I don’t know why this is. Maybe I’m not easily bored, maybe it’s how I’m built and wired. Maybe it’s because I see others around me who can’t sit still for more than five minutes and who always need to feel like they’re accomplishing something, using every available minute to its max, and this only hardens my resolve to just not be that way.

There probably is a time and place for being that way, but those days are over for me.

There’s no rewinding of the tape, no taking any of it back. No do-overs. It happened and it can’t be undone. Three hostages killed by friendly fire, in the fog of war, by fellow countrymen. I wonder if there’s more to learn about this story. Probably just more details that will render it an even more hideous and tragic event.

Who couldn’t have seen this coming?

Follow-up re COP28—I guess it’s considered progress when the finished documents and press releases dare to actually mention “fossil fuels” by name– and these as needing to be phased out!

Baby steps and feet-dragging are all we can expect, I guess, especially since the President for the event was the UAE oil chief. Ya, that sounds about right.

Talk about turning the Titanic around.

If this country still exists in 50 years, the history books—or whatever medium is used to convey information—will hopefully include a chapter or two about the state of the Republican party in 2023, and how they thought it wise to pursue impeachment of Joe Biden—you know, out of concern for the letter of the law and all.

The books will hopefully, without hint of snark, reveal that there was no evidence on which to base a decision to spend precious election year time in a pursuit motivated by vengeance and desperation, with tactics designed to distract the electorate and introduce doubt just as they were really deciding who to vote for.

Such a plan was in part born of the appalling lack of substance in the Republican platform, the creaking, decaying, nostalgic pablum that Republicans were wont to push on their favorite news outlet, watched by millions who thought Donald Trump was still a viable candidate for POTUS in 2024.

-The media cover everything, from the sublime to the ridiculous, from the Northern Lights to Donald Trump.

-Does the human capacity for wonder and awe signify anything, mean anything, indicate anything?

-It’s too late to talk about redemption and Donald Trump in the same sentence. Trump is living his life as if that ship sailed a long time ago. No one doubles down as often or as defiantly as he does without already having given up on redeeming themselves or asking for forgiveness. For Trump, it’s full steam ahead with an empty coal car.

-Speaking of fossil fuel… COP28. The theme should have been, “Why bother?”

How can there be any reaction other than blistering anger when one reads of the situation in Texas?

Putting aside whatever spin has been generated, and hoping that the story as Rachel Maddow conveyed it last night is as accurate as it can get, how can anyone stand with Texas—and especially its AG—after hearing about the situation Texas put Kate Cox in?

When she gets back from wherever she went to get the abortion, will she be a marked woman, face criminal proceedings? Will she even come back to live in Texas, will she be told to leave, move to another state?

As the situation was being described last night, I couldn’t help but feel like we indeed have neo-Nazis among us—and not only in Texas, but in every state that has or is hoping to have these oppressive, medieval laws on the books. This is evil, this is conservative religion in all its oppressive, backward, ignorant ugliness.

What’s next? One might assume this story is far from over.

The overturning of Roe v Wade looks more and more like a total misread and ill-advised overreach. Like something conservative Republicans should have known would blow up in their faces, something they should have left alone.