Just a little more than usual
Winter– ski jumping, Biathlon, for some reason, maybe hockey and luge. Summertime– certain track and field events, and gymnastics. I’m not as glued to the TV during the Olympics as I used to be.
I’m heartened by the stories of good sportsmanship, and I like the underdog stories– the medal winners who surprise everyone because they defy certain odds and perform beyond expectations.
Advocate for and support the music and arts efforts and the multi-purpose theater, vote for wise land use and open space; utilize our location next to a river, remind people that we live in a beautiful area that has a certain character and its own bit of fascinating history.
Cory Booker probably needs a nap. I’m sure conservative media have had a field day, downplaying and ridiculing Booker’s 25-plus hour marathon on the Senate floor, perhaps calling it melodramatic grandstanding, hypocritical, or some such thing. I choose to see it differently.
I see Booker’s efforts as a sign of the times, a response to constituents who wanted him and every other member of Congress to do more in the face of the wanton destruction unfolding in Washington and around the country. What Booker did was extreme but necessary, given that Trump, Musk, and the rest are obviously running with the (nonexistent) mandate theme and doing their best to tear bone and sinew limb from limb.
If the goal is indeed privatization, and the rich getting richer while the rest of us are left to gather the crumbs and offer ourselves to the Almighty Market forces, then the rest of us need a champion or two. And the rest of us will inevitably need to get involved, try to send a message to an administration that has made it clear it neither appreciates nor much heeds messages being sent its way.
It’s feeling more like, sooner or later, the streets are going to heat up.
Remote learning or working from home are no longer things I need to consider. Apart from sometimes feeling apprehensive over when the next one will arrive and if we’ll be close to ready for it, I guess there hasn’t been a lot to which to adapt, personally. The memories are still relatively fresh, though, with regard to supply chain vulnerabilities and the counter-productive divisiveness, i.e. the plethora of opinions that existed and still exist concerning precautions, vaccine efficacy, etc.
Maybe it’s made me more aware of hygeine considerations and taken away the stigma of wearing a mask in public if I’m sitting in the doctor’s office with a cold. I still have and use my Zoom subscription, and I’m liking the contactless payment option when I get gas or check out at the grocery store.
It seems it comes down to who we believe, who we trust. I’m gonna go with Rachel Maddow and the late-night comedians, for whom Donald Trump and the pack of wolves who egg him on are always fair game. And rightfully so.
It’s hard, every day—and getting harder—to stay tuned in. I’m finding the news out of Washington to be increasingly disheartening, troubling, and unwatchable. But there’s the rub: we have to stay tuned, find a trustworthy source and hope they’re on the level with us. Because it’s become painfully obvious that The Heritage Foundation (such a noble name…) have Trump right where they want him- wreaking havoc, signing executive orders left and right, offering up off-the-wall threats, claiming a Liberation Day because of some cockamamy tariffs that are gonna bring prosperity back to America…, attempting to render impotent the potential resistance, dispensing with due process, sowing confusion and anger among our former allies, purposely weakening the whole structure of what has worked, for the most part, since 1789.
This implosive momentum, this turning inwards, has little chance of working. The more difficult yet beneficial path is to make the effort to be a team player, to interact with the rest of the world, to play our part, convince people that our heart is in the right place—no matter what Vladmir Putin thinks—and there is more to be gained from putting ourselves out there than from retreating and closing ourselves off. Isolation seems like a recipe for disaster.
But of course, that is what Trump prefers, because it’s easier and more beneficial to him. Nothing else matters to him. How can anyone believe he loves America, when he seems only to want to hasten its demise?
Congrats, Trump voters. We have ourselves a megalomaniac in charge.
Get up at 5am, hit the bathroom, pour my cold brew, then head downstairs to write– first in a daily journal I’ve been keeping sporadically for decades, but religiously since 2017, then here in WordPress, until 7am or often after. The first hour is usually taken up with the journal and getting a start on the Daily Writing Prompt, or sometimes completing that.
When I first started what became this routine, I was still a full-time pastor, and I found the early morning quiet time good for the soul, a welcomed refuge. Anymore, it’s still the best time of day, but it’s getting a bit more difficult to answer the bell at the crack of dawn.
I can’t give it up, though. It’s one of the few things I’ve been disciplined enough to turn into a habit.
Some people can roll their tongues, others can sing on key, and others can’t do those and other things. Beyond those sorts of traits, even identical twins aren’t completely identical, and other factors come into play that contribute to a person’s uniqueness– environment, differences in upbringing and perceptions, brain development, dietary choices, chemical imbalances, and so on.
The twins I know are fraternal, so physical, facial likeness doesn’t exist. They differ in personal habits and preferences and points of view as well, but they appear to be each other’s best friend and confidante.
Apart from twins or triplets, etc. and differences in physical appearance and even vocal inflections and tone, each of us is our own collection of behaviors and perceptions, products of our upbringing, of parental guidance and socializaton or lack thereof. It’s like we each arrive with our own specialized software, slightly or greatly varied, that informs how we receive external stimuli, how we see and hear things, and how we respond and react and make decisions.
How can there be anyone left who’s happy about the direction we’re heading? I mean other than Trump and Vance and the brain trust at the Heritage Foundation?
Burning bridges left and right, picking fights with Canada and Greenland and Denmark. Destroying the foundation of our national identity, gutting programs and institutions, leveling tariffs that raise prices and plunge markets, peeling off $5 trillion of value so far; closing borders, arresting people going about their business because their skin is dark and they might be speaking out about injustice they see being perpetrated on their people.
“There’s gonna be some pain,” they try to offer as assurance. But that’s just empty platitude. They don’t know what they’re talking about. There’s no end to the pain, maybe no recovery from all of this. It’s all a mix of intentionality, mean-spiritedness, and colossal incompetence, intended to weaken spirits and resolve, force us to “run to daddy,” who alone can fix everything…
They have no intention of fixing anything– because they can’t and they really don’t want to. And it’s all happening before our eyes.
Mary Trump has always been right—her uncle is a sick man who has no use for America other than for what it can do for him. All dysfunction and self-serving revenge all the time.
Congratulations and a big thank you to the millions who cast their vote for a puppet, for someone whose plainly spoken message and only goal has always been payback. He’s incapable of caring about any of us. He’s an attention junkie who’s only ever wanted to prevail, to rule, to win– literally at any cost.
Some sort of educational facility– medical research or music.
People around the world must be looking at us and wondering, with a skeptical eye and mystified stare. But then it dawns on them. “Oh, right.” They put two and two together and come up with Donald Trump.
I’m not seeing any way that this ends well. Even if people demonstrate and rebel and get through to their Congresspeople, this administration, or regime, is not going to give up power now that they have it. I can’t be the only one thinking this.
The scapegoats are being named. ICE agents are already icing people. Institutions are being gutted, voices of reason and dissent declawed. It can’t be long before the demonstrations and public protests are viewed as something more than mere nuisance, and law enforcement and military personnel will have to make a choice: which side are they going to stand with?
Are they going to “follow orders” or break ranks?
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