Poor Joe. It seems he can’t catch a break lately. Every misstep, every audible gaff is poked and probed and added to someone’s list of reasons why he shouldn’t be running for reelection. I admit to thinking he’s getting up there in years and does, on occasion, appear frail and tired and not up to the challenge of keeping a schedule one might associate with being POTUS.

But… Mr. Biden does come across as being a genuinely kind person. And he does love America—more so for what it can be than for what it once was and must not return to. Which is unlike his opponents on the right, who want to make America into a cold-hearted bastion of whiteness and a so-called Christian nation dependent on an easily and frequently misinterpreted and narrow reading of what the Bible says.

If the DNC deems Biden our best option against Trump or a Trump wannabe who’s beholden to the mindless Base, then I have to go with the elder statesman, and hope that his supporting cast can pick up any slack.  

Besides, Trump is no Spring chicken. Age-wise, we’re pretty much talking apples and apples.

Trump revives push to eliminate Obamacare.

First of all, it’s The Affordable Care Act. Secondly, what?

We already have at our disposal all we need to know about Donald Trump and his fitness for holding any elected office, never mind POTUS. In his and his reelection team’s inimitable opinion, it apparently seems like a good idea to add this to his long list of grievances, er, talking points. Fine, all this does is confirm the man’s heartlessness and that he operates with a debilitating chip on his shoulder.

Years have passed since the last time he brought this up. More people are covered by the program now than were covered a few years ago (35 million, according to a recent HHS report). What’s he doing? Does he know?

Sounds like he’s just lashing out. Playing the old, tired hits. A loser on so many levels.

Why is the story of Joe Burrow’s wrist so important? Is it merely because the Bengals didn’t follow NFL protocol in reporting an injury? And it’s Joe Burrow? Who needs to know about the injury? Why is it so critical that an investigation take place and people get to the bottom of this?

In my cynicism, I can’t help but think that it’s more about informing the millions who bet on games and who have turned fantasy leagues into an alternate universe, taking these as seriously as the players do the actual contests on the field. And even if this isn’t the reason, the whole wagering/fantasy league piece of the NFL experience seems overwrought and unworthy of such affiliation. The players should not be beholden to any of these peripheral interests.

Betting on games? All the warnings and 800 numbers and speed-talking disclaimers in the world won’t keep people from placing bets when they don’t have the money, or maybe even preventing a player on the field in a certain situation from throwing an intentionally errant pass, or giving up on a tackle.

Bottom line—who needs to know about Joe Burrow’s potential injury—the teams themselves, or the cadre of wagering concerns and fantasy football leeches hitching a ride on the NFL gravy train? Looks like the answer might be “Yes.”

Russia targets Ukraine’s power grid as winter sets in. Cruelty knows no bounds. War creates its own momentum, because people just get increasingly pissed at each other. A huge, sad game of tit for tat.

How much longer can the world stand by before we’re looking at WWIII? What are the spoils going to be? What is the purpose, the plan for when the bombs stop and the dust settles and the blood stops flowing?

Is there a victor who emerges, who now rules the roost and enjoys the spoils? Or is it just more hardened feelings and long memories for revenge, and unwilling subjects who want no part of being ruled by some remote, power-hungry kleptocracy who couldn’t care less about anyone else’s well-being?

Who knows, maybe this will be when God shows up—when the cry “How long?” grows to a crescendo, a world-wide lamentation.

What a sad, cruel joke.

I’m proud of our kids and spouses and the lives they’ve carved out for themselves. Hard-working in their jobs, dedicated and kind, attentive parents trying to raise their children with the right mix of oversight and free range.

I guess what concerns me is that the youngest generation is growing up in a world that really doesn’t have its shit together. What is their world gonna look like in 5 or 10 or 20 years? What’s on tap for their future?

We can only control what’s going on in the household, I guess, though one might hope that what is taught in the home that is good and wise has a way of seeping into the wider community and changing a corner of the world.

It seems there are always forces at work that are so much bigger than any one family. Impersonal, evil, self-satisfying, the opposite of altruistic, with little interest in shared victories and progress. It might infuriate a person to think that so much energy and will are focused on narrow agendas with such misplaced intensity.

What kind of world will today’s children inherit?

Sometimes it’s hard to think that we have to fight for everything. Why can’t there be a baseline of expectations and norms for how we treat one another? What is so difficult about live and let live? Why is it viewed as naïve to think that we could opt for cooperation and helping each other get through the day, instead of harboring suspicion and mistrust and just grabbing for what we think is ours, forcing our will, and to hell with everyone else?

The easier path, survival basics, I guess. Seems like we should be turning the corner on that way of thinking, if we are to exist as anything more than isolated clans and tribes.

After the OpenAI kerfuffle and strangeness, the future of artificial intelligence will be more focused on profit than altruism, according to The Guardian.

Wow, there’s a surprise. A technology in its relative infancy, though already firmly entrenched in everyday life but with unrealized potential and far-reaching implications in all sorts of directions for good and ill, vulnerable to bad players and now openly assessed as being for sale and subject to the vicissitudes of free markets and highest bidders.

Sounds like your above-average nightmare.

Nov. 22 pretty much came and went. Rob Reiner’s podcast doesn’t seem to be gaining much traction.

Sixty years on. One perturbed guy pulling off arguably the crime of the century makes sense, in a way—less of a chance of slips of the tongue and such. But what are the chances that there wasn’t more to it?

Many are still thinking there was more to it.

There’s not much to add to the reaction to the decision by a Colorado judge saying out loud that Trump participated in an insurrection but that the 14^th Amendment provision under review doesn’t apply to Presidents, or at least to one past President.

So, Trump can stay on the ballot in the CO primary.

The judge’s ruling, she pretty much admits, was based on fear—that there would be consequences, repercussions for her, her staff, her family, her community, and she just doesn’t want to deal with all that, which is a stunning place to be as a country.

All that’s left is hope that our polling places are well staffed and our votes get counted. The ballot box is, apparently, all that stands between us and chaos. And we can be sure that Trump and his gang of simpletons will be doing all they can to take that away, too.

Greg Abbott endorses Donald Trump. How? Why? I’m sure in his devilish southern drawl he’ll downplay the decision. It’s not surprising, just sickening.

As one commentator observed, it’s also not surprising that Donald Trump doesn’t mind being in the presence of certain handicapped individuals when there’s an endorsement to be had.

I don’t know Garrison Keillor personally. I listened to A Prairie Home Companion most Saturday evenings for a few years and grew to appreciate his sense of humor and storytelling acumen. I’ve read a couple of his books, and discovered that he has a knack for speaking to the beauty and heartbreak of being human.

I don’t know the details of the circumstances surrounding the parting of ways between Keillor and MPR back in 2016, nor do I have any idea of what went on between him and the woman who accused him of sexual harassment. In a fairly recent interview I came across, with CBS, Keillor appeared to exhibit a lingering mix of defiance and regret over that episode.

What sticks in my craw is the usual thing— Keillor undoubtedly possessed a certain amount of power and influence as a result of who he was, who he had become. He had to be careful in his interactions with the opposite sex. On the other hand, what is the motivation of someone who decides that the only course of action is a lawsuit and, who knows, maybe an aching desire to act on “taking someone down?”

What about what some may consider an equally “adult” course of action– taking a person aside and letting him know that, in your estimation, he crossed a line and he must not do it again? Such a scenario is more often seen as untenable, and laughable.

Of course I’m speaking without having all the details, but it’s difficult for me to disregard the role and allure of money, the tantalizing enrichment dangled in front of someone who, at the strong urging of an attorney who stands to benefit in the event of a settlement, convinces a client to sue, because that would somehow send a louder and clearer message than simply having a conversation—no doubt a difficult conversation—in which the parties arrive at a workable understanding. Pie in the sky, I guess. Naïve as all get-out, because of an unworkable power imbalance?

I get stuck on the allure of a pay-out, though. Who doesn’t like money? A love of money does its own share of diminishing and sullying, and clouding one’s vision.