Watched a couple 60 Minutes Australia segments on Billy Joel. Really interesting. He has a good sense of himself, after all these years, and he said something that I’ve echoed to our daughter, a piano player, about being competent. You don’t have to be the best piano player in the world, but can you do your job? Can you play well enough to do the music justice and give people an experience worthy of their time and money, if money is involved?

It was good to hear him say that, because I’ve felt that way forever. Just be competent, be good at what you do, care about what you do. You don’t have to be the best, which is a subjective thing anyway, and it doesn’t mean you don’t have to know your stuff.

Singer-songwriter is a lofty perch, to me, especially as this regards people like Joel, Henley, Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Stevie Wonder, Lennon-McCartney, Dylan, Sting, and others (ya, I’m dating myself). We’re talking rarified air, a unique giftedness, possession of certain intangibles beyond putting in the long hours of practice. It’s a connection with some elusive, mysterious source of inspiration and creativity.

And, regarding Billy Joel, his choice of “And So It Goes” as perhaps his favorite song in his catalog—well, it made me smile. I’ve always thought it was a perfect song—relatively short, thoughtful, haunting, simply beautiful in all the ways a song can be beautiful—musically, lyrically, and what it evokes in a listener, where it takes them. A baring of the soul, leaving the listener perhaps hoping there would have been more. And yet still being enough.

Trump, with a brain. This is how some describe Ron DeSantis. A brighter persona, similarly loathsome ideas, but more smarts to compliment the dumbness.

Heavy sigh.

This land is your land, this land is my land. Writes the one whose countrymen ripped the rug out from underneath the earliest occupants.

Has anyone thought to ask the people whose descendants were here thousands of years before the explorers from Europe arrived? What if the tables were turned? Would we be ok with… reservations and casinos? With being largely forgotten and cast off as somehow expendable and less than human, an unfortunate casualty of “destiny”?

Destiny needs to be buried in a cement vault and thrown into the sea. Vladimir Putin probably thinks he’s destined for some sort of greatness.

So, Covid-19 is what a pandemic looks like. I occasionally wondered about that, fretted a bit over it. Turns out it’s a planet on lockdown and everything familiar and routine blown out of the water. A seismic disturbance with far-reaching, long-term effects. And revelatory of aspects of human nature that gets one wondering how we’ve survived this long.

Mitt Romney wrote an interesting article in The Atlantic the other day, on the topic of America being in denial. I don’t know what he has up his sleeve, if he’s angling for another run, but what he said made sense.

He seems to be saying that we never really like hearing the hard things. No surprise there. It’s a (human) tendency to ignore, cast aside, dismiss, engage in wishful thinking. In some ways, he’s just the latest person to warn that we are running out of time to fix what needs fixing, and that the upcoming 2024 election can be an opportunity (maybe our last chance) to chart a different course with whoever is elected President. The insinuation is to stay clear of Donald Trump—there are others in the wings who are smarter and much more capable.

Romney received his share of raspberries over the article, which is both predictable and begs the question: can’t anyone offer an honest and legitimate plea for sanity, a poignant, wise opinion piece based on observable reality, without incurring the wrath of so many voices who somehow manage to simultaneously cackle loudly, say nothing, and bury their heads in the sand?

It really does seem that many believe just ignoring problems will make them go away. They must be taking their cue from Trump himself, who did just that when a PANDEMIC came knocking.

I’m wondering if we should make a place to fly the flag, it being the 4^th of July and all. If we do find a spot, the flag will fly in honor and remembrance of an event that happened 246 years ago. Otherwise, it’s not clear to me what we’d be celebrating. I’m not sure why we’d make the effort.

I know that sounds whiny and “leftist” and “liberal” and “unpatriotic,” and to that I say “whatever.” The America I will honor with a flag exists only in dreams, and maybe on parchment. Otherwise, it’s a sad place, an angry place, conflicted, confused, distracted, inflamed, seemingly destined to be a wasteland, heading for another round of ugliness and hostility– either a more complete healing of wounds that have been weeping since 1865, or the final rupturing of whatever glue and tape have been holding things together.

Visionless. Undue influence by a death grip on old ways of thinking, fouled by bad ideas passed down from generation to generation, corrupted by bad policy, blinded by filthy wealth, paralyzed by fear and ignorance, influenced by people blinded by selfishness.

“This land is your land, this land is my land…”? No, it’s my land. E pluribus unum? I’m not seeing it.

It is difficult to shake the feeling that Donald Trump will emerge unscathed, yet again.

Just saw a headline that read something to the effect of “Trump is the Most Investigated, Least Prosecuted Man Ever…” No surprise there.

So either he does shitty stuff all the time, gives people reason to believe he’s up to something rotten, OR he’s (gulp) innocent of wrongdoing and we just have to learn to put up with his assholery. Which seems unfair, untenable, and absolutely unacceptable. He’s not even in office! He’s on the outside looking in, where he should remain forevermore.

How can someone so loathsome and smarmy and ugly remain so popular and consequential? And elusive, at least in terms of having any accusations stick? As often as people think they’ve found the smoking gun, he eludes capture and lives to create chaos another day.

This immature attention hound is sucking the life out of us, yet many still think he’s some sort of messiah.  

A 6-3 vote by the SCOTUS to limit the effectiveness of the EPA.

How many ways can this be parsed? Is there any aspect of life where we don’t have to worry about undue influence by people with deep pockets? How much faith can we have in our institutions if even the Supreme Court is not moved by what we see happening around us?

What are we supposed to make of such a decision? That they know things we don’t, that the crisis isn’t real, that scientists and environmentalists are riling everyone up over nothing, that actions needed taken really don’t need to be taken?

Are they following some letter of the law that takes precedence over reality? Whose line are they buying?

There’s more than enough frustration to go around, at this point. The environmentalists apparently are just crying wolf, and at best are on their own. No help from decision makers and policy makers and lawmakers. These people just don’t care.

Do big oil and coal still have that much influence? They’re killing the planet but no one in a position to stop them appears to give a damn.

Bombshell testimony, or just more information destined for the bone pile? The recollections shared by Cassidy Hutchinson at the 6/28 hearing would seem to add nails to Trump’s coffin, along with Mark Meadows’. Of course one would have to think that there is a round of counterclaims and refutations yet to come. This is all pretty one-sided at the moment, and nothing really comes as a surprise. Though in context, Trumps’ tirades may serve to confirm his intentions.

What was he going to do if he made it to the Capitol? Was he anticipating prevailing in the midst of bloodshed at the copse of trees and raising the Confederate flag, i.e. returning to the chambers and assuming his “rightful” place as fearless leader? Why was he so pissed about not being able to go to the Capitol? What did he hope to do there? What was supposed to happen? What was the plan?

Because it’s looking like there definitely was a plan.

It’s official. Roe v Wade has been overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. An oh-so-predictable vote. So the weeping and wailing and indignation following the leaked sneak peek have begun all over again.

There was a time when I was mortified by a law that allowed women the right to terminate a pregnancy. I had a dim view of any woman who could be so cold and cavalier and dismissive of the new life within her. But I don’t think that way anymore.

This isn’t a religious issue. We’ve made it one, or religious conservatives have. This is a woman’s rights issue. She has the right to decide for herself—regardless of the burden of conscience or what the bible says. This is a decision not to be taken out of the hands of the one person most directly affected—the pregnant woman.

Bible thumpers and the rest truly have no say in this, even as it has become apparent that they—at least for now—have ruled the day.

The thought of killing a fetus, of terminating a vulnerable life, may be offensive to many people. But this has always been about more than someone simply being offended or feeling the need to serve as someone else’s conscience. This is about granting autonomy to women and recognizing that the burden of conscience, the burden of any feelings that may emerge, the potential regret or remorse, or relief—all of this is left to the woman who makes the decision to terminate or to keep.

If the religious right want to get involved, then they can pray for the woman’s soul or her decision-making process, if that would help them feel better.