“Nondescript” or “The Opposite of Kinetic”
Nice Try
Mitch McConnell’s No vote on Tulsi Gabbard is no great shakes, just convenient and consequence-free. There’s no reelection to worry about, nothing at stake anymore.
He’s no pillar of conscience, though he’s always had a way with words.
House of Cards?
How do we voice displeasure and have our voices heard? Or was this always going to be a fool’s errand?
The second Trump term is already feeling like some foreign incursion, like he and the rest are serving the interests of a narrow few, and not the country as a whole. Barring some miraculous change of heart, it appears there’s nothing anyone will be able to do to stop them, so it’s going to come down to violence, with law enforcement and the military having to choose sides.
We’ll know this for sure when Maddow, Colbert, and Kimmel, along with the press, decide to tone down their rhetoric and critique, become subservient and acquiescent, effectively marginalized.
How can these people have so much power? Partly because the Republicans in Congress are all walking around, somehow, without backbones. And consciences (that includes you, Mitch, even though you voted against Ms. Gabbard). And the Democrats have the convenient excuse of being in the minority. Helluva place to be, considering the moment.
People voted for this. We all should have seen it coming, and many did. No one should be surprised, except maybe by the level of cowardice and speed of capitulation. Who knew Executive Orders could carry so much weight?
Note to the press
Learn how not to be thrown off the scent!!
At My Age…
Dad had been retired for a few years, golfing, painting, and singing in a local chapter of a barbershop chorus group. Mom was semi-retired, still involved in the music ministry at the nursery and preschool she once directed, and also at the church where she’d been a member since baptism. Mom was also perfectly content to be at home, receiving company and enjoying afternoon coffee and goodies.
They were traveling periodically, visiting family, celebrating birthdays and other occasions. They were getting away to Florida and several other destinations with family members and friends. So, still quite healthy and active.
Half Life
No one gets to “play” governance like children play house. No one gets to wield the levers of power without adequate understanding of duties and responsibilities, cause and effect, action and consequence. And yet…
What’s happening now is not only appalling and an affront to any true freedom-loving American. It’s not only an embarrassment and a catastrophe in process. It’s also the return of snark and misdirection and lying and incompetence alongside the flippant attitude of unserious people who are creating an atmosphere of folly and make-believe.
Trump 2.0 once again feels like throwing a passerby on the street into the control room of a nuclear reactor and expecting things to run without incident. What hurts the most is that this is the plan. This is intentional. And they don’t care if the core melts down.
Over Here!
It’s an old tactic, like an explosion down the street from where a bank robbery will unfold, all in the service of distraction and decoy.
When Trump doubles down on his assertion that Gaza will become a Middle East Riviera, or makes a ridiculously big deal about changing the name of the Gulf, or threatens Greenland with annexation or Canada with statehood, he’s trying to throw us off the scent of what’s happening to NIH or DOJ or USAID or the rest of the institutional tear-down in process in Washington.
“Flooding the zone” is already cliché, but the purpose for it is to confuse and overwhelm. Both throwing spaghetti at the wall and an exercise of power that’s supposed to shock and awe, which has also become a cliché.
Anyway, the evisceration attempt is still ramping up. We best not lose sight of that—despite what DJT says about Panama or the Gulf of Mexico, or paper straws, or pennies, or whatever comes next in the “ooh, a squirrel!” roll out.
Unwarranted Overreach
Daily writing prompt
If you had the power to change one law, what would it be and why?
If I had the power… it might be to restore Roe v Wade, because no woman should have to live under the thumb of people– including a fair share of men– who ignore or misread the separation of church and state.
Restoration would of course involve, in most instances, leaving an inherently monumental decision and its consequences to the woman and anyone she chooses to consult.
No earthling gets to play God, or act as if he or she possesses proper authority over someone else’s bodily autonomy– as odious and “un-Christian” as the outcome may seem to them.
Unsurprised By Anything
Are they going to steal our dreams, too?
Who are these people, and where did they come from? How did they get so ugly? From the top on down, they come across as automatons—cold, calculating, programmed, incapable of empathy or kindness in the quantities required of people who hold such great responsibilities. Somehow less than human, with a creepy affective deficit.
It’s honestly difficult to imagine many of these people having what might be considered a normal home life, where they interact with a spouse or a child or a dog, or take time to tell a joke or laugh at themselves. I imagine many of them waking up angry every day.
They’re scary and out of touch. They appear to have one-track minds, to be driven only by the thought of taking things away– and often in the name of pleasing their God. What kind of America are they envisioning? Is it really one that serves only their interests, their thinly veiled racism and fear masquerading as fiscal belt-tightening and “efficiency”? How Third Reich-ish can they get?
There’s a “mandate” for this?
A Dream, Indeed
I think of such things through the lens of a shared dream with my wife, but personally speaking, my dream home would have some land, maybe two acres, well drained, with an outbuilding big enough to store items we use on a regular basis for yard care, etc., and space for a well-appointed wood shop.
The house itself would be modest but well-conceived, with room to host company. It would utilize solar power–both passive and panels– and geothermal wells; there would be an attached garage and a finished basement with TV/entertainment room. Maybe a rancher with an open floor plan. There’d be a sewing room, an office, and a well-appointed kitchen with induction stovetop and room for an island and storage of essential food prep items– a place in which people would want to gather and linger without being packed like sardines.
There would be a sunken living room with a higher ceiling, baby grand piano, comfortable seating, a properly vented gas fireplace, with an adjacent dining area and giant table.
It would have a substantial back patio with some sort of protection from the elements, open to a good-sized lawn with a glorious shade tree, several fruit trees, and a pleasing mix of flowers and shrubs and space for a vegetable garden.
Ideally, on a hill or at least high enough ground to enjoy an unfettered view of sunrises or sunsets, and far enough away from light pollution so we can stargaze and see the Milky Way, maybe even warranting a small backyard observatory.
3 Cents' 