Let's have a little fun!

Today was International Women's Day, a day to celebrate women from all walks of life, everywhere in the world.  To all women, you are wonderful, beautiful, hard-working people who have always and continue to deserve far greater respect and equality that you receive.  As a white male in America, I don't pretend to understand all you go through, but I stand with you.

We are also approaching the NCAA College Basketball Tournament - MARCH MADNESS!  I also don't pretend to know the first thing about college basketball; I barely follow the NBA.  But I do know this is the time of year where everyone has fun with brackets of some kind.

If you have followed me at all, you know I have always been a huge fan of theatre, particularly musical theatre.  I have had an idea rolling around my noodle for a couple of years for no particular reason.  I've worked on it a little bit, but now, in light of the day and that we are all in need of a slight distraction due to our shared national/global disaster, I have decided it is finally time to present my BROADWAY LEADING LADIES BRACKET! 

So first of all, let me apologize for the poor quality of the photo.  The bracket was created in Excel and I'm not bright enough to figure out how to just copy that into the blog, so we get a phone pic upload instead; I hope you can work out how to read the names.

Second, I need your participation in this!  To give you time to fill out your brackets, voting will begin on Monday, March 13.  Each day, I will give you match-ups on which to vote and then tally the results until we get a winner for our greatest living Broadway Leading Lady!  Please share this with anyone you know who enjoys Broadway!

Third, all of these extremely talented ladies could go into just about any category description, but in case you don't understand my four brackets, here is an explanation:

• Ethel Merman Memorial Bracket is for belters.
• Mary Martin Memorial Bracket is for "legit" singers.
• Gwen Verdon Memorial Bracket is for "triple threats" - actor/singer/dancer.
• Elaine Stritch Memorial Bracket is for character actors.

Finally, for those of you who are following me looking for more than fluff and diversions, don't worry: I will not abandon my other writing for this over the next couple of weeks (or however long it takes to get through this - I'm very informal about it); I will simply add each day's match-ups at the end of the post; feel free to not participate if it doesn't interest you, but it would be really fun to have a lot of votes each day!

So warm up your warblers, put on your tap shoes, and sparkle those jazz hands as we honor our favorite Broadway ladies!

I don't know how to approach this tonight.

I guess first off apologies are in order.  Yesterday was the first day I have missed a post since starting this blog (I can hear the sarcastic sentiments from many of you).  Not only was I thoroughly exhausted and falling asleep while trying to type up some nonsense fluff piece about being excited for the Marvel Cinematic Universe and what it will be giving us this year (although I may return to that in the not too distant future), it's DAMN HARD writing like this day after day!  I have a whole new respect for those who can, and for those who write period, no matter your medium.  How do other bloggers and editorialists (not a word?) and late-night talk show staves write such great stuff to be presented instantly day after day??  Kudos to you all!

So as I'm still trying to crawl out of my "45 Fatigue," as a high school friend poetically calls it, I'm torn with how I should proceed tonight.  I could go off about Immigrant Ban 2.0 and how it's basically more of the same with just a little (surprising) pander to the left in recognizing there could be harm in a unilateral ban of all immigrants; how there is a convenient coincidence that Khizr Khan, the father of the Muslim soldier who died while serving the country and spoke at the Democratic National Convention to offer DT a copy of the Constitution, has had to cancel travel plans TO CANADA for a speaking engagement because of it; how it is all still very vague and scary to leave things up to individual Customs and Border Patrol personnel to interpret, who could just as easily insert their own feelings and biases rather than be fair and impartial about waiver requests.

I could talk further about the ridiculous alt-right media claims that he jumped all over about President Obama and a "tapp" (sic) of his golden NYC palace; how the claim is completely unsubstantiated and he and Spicey know it is which is why they are now refusing to make any further statements about it; how it is just another attempt at distraction from the continuing investigation into his campaign's ties with Russia.

I could bring up the rise in anti-Semitism in the country; how he himself may not be anti-Semitic, but his campaign run on hate and bigotry and intolerance has made it acceptable for citizens of that backwards and antiquated mindset to physically and verbally attack other citizens who are different from them, both to their person and to their property, including sacred places like cemeteries.  And let's not forget the continuing Islamophobia running rampant (side note: how sad is it "Islamophobia" is recognized by spellchecker?).

I could talk about how Dr. (??!) Ben Carson doesn't seem to understand his history because he compared slaves to immigrants, despite a pathetic attempt at a retraction.  Or how about the suddenly-existent new bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act which would still harm millions of Americans (kudos to the Republican leaders who are currently refusing to go along with it)?  OR how about that he has been in Florida playing golf four out of five weekends of his short term when he was so quick to chastise his predecessor for taking an infrequent vacation over EIGHT YEARS?

I COULD go on about any of these things, but I just want to talk about the shared love my son and I have for Harry Potter, and now it's too late for me to do that tonight - thanks Trump!

Today, I am amused.

Despite my fears that liberals may be fatiguing a bit, I should learn to relax.  Not relax from fighting, but relax my anxieties because 45 will always find a way to shoot himself in the foot.  Once again the buffoon has decided to have a 4am tweetfest, this time creating the notion that President Obama bugged his precious midtown Manhattan palace during the elections.

So first of all, the accusation is completely baseless.  Popular explanation says he got the idea from freaking Breitbart, the epitome of all fair and honest reporting.  Secondly, as many sources have publicly stated, the President cannot sanction wiretapping on his own (side note: that is a universal "he" if for no other reason we have not had a woman as president . . . YET).

Now, I have been accused repeatedly in my life of having no filter.  When I first became a supervisor to a team of employees, I had a steep learning curve of being careful about what I said.  I still slip sometimes and spew out things that I shouldn't, in and out of work, but I believe I have gotten a lot better in the last few years.  Did no one ever teach this man to think before he speaks?  Does he EVER proof what he types or go back to listen to himself to learn from his mistakes??  Obviously these are rhetorical questions as we clearly know the answer is an unequivocal "no" because he doesn't believe he makes mistakes.  He believes he is perfectly justified in saying the things he does. Hate to tell ya DT, but after a while, your audience gets fed up with listening to BS and completely tunes you out.  It starts doing its own thing and you eventually get removed from your position.

You almost had a good thing going, Donnie!  Your speech to Congress (which, by the way, you owe some writers a hefty bonus) was so well-delivered that you even convinced your harshest critics you might actually have the ability to be presidential after all.  You could have ridden that wave to the more global popularity you crave so dearly.  But, no, you couldn't help yourself.  You had to go right back to your ridiculous plan of distracting everyone from your ineptitude by completely discrediting President Obama.  You're only making yourself look like a bigger fool than we already know you are when you do this.  We're not falling for it; no amount of attempting to shred his legacy is going to make us forget who you are and the extremely weak base on which you are trying to build yours.

So by all means, keep tweeting in the wee hours of the morning - you're probably in the middle of one right now.  Keep trying to throw mud on your predecessor; he'll come out clean in the end.  I will just turn to you with a laugh and ask if you need some salt with your kneecap as you continue to shove your foot deeper n your mouth.  Bon appetit!

I'm afraid.

I never intended for this to be a purely political op-ed.  It's funny how I, who tripped my way through Civics in high school, am now writing something that's political inclusions are the most read (if the "views" each post is getting are to be believed).  If that is the case, you'd think there would be a plethora about which to write as this fascist regime - I mean administration - bumbles and infuriates its way through modern history, but it's getting less interesting to talk and write about it every day.

I am finding myself falling into his trap, as I fear many of us are.  He is wearing us down.  There doesn't seem to be as much vocal outrage as there was leading up to his inauguration and in the immediate weeks following it.  Yes, we are still livid about all of the insane dictator-like things he is trying to do, but I fear some of us are getting tired, and that Trump-fatigue is exactly what they want. They want us to give up, accept it (how much have we heard that trope?), and let it normalize.

I am very appreciative of our representatives, both in Washington and at state and local levels, who continue to be vocal and fight for what we all believe in, even when we as citizens are worn down. That is part of the job we elected them to do, right: to listen to us and take what we have to say right into the seat of the government?  That is not say we sit back and make them do all the heavy lifting, and that's the trap I fear we're hitting the deeper this insanity goes.

I need to see another rally like the Women's March that happened January 21.  There was passive talk of something happening on April 15, but I haven't heard about that for a while.  Where did the strong organizers go??  I'm not one of them, but I can be a part of something if it's started.  I just feel like we need another big event to draw us back out of the malaise into which we're slipping.  If we get in deeper, then we'll be no better off in two years because we won't have shown up for the midterm elections (again); and then, heaven forbid, Teleprompter Trump will continue to employ excellent speech writers like the one(s) who gave him his first ludicrously-heralded speech to Congress and fool everyone into electing him again in 2020!  We cannot let this happen!!  #resist

I say we all need a little more absurdism in our lives.

And because I have nothing meaningful to contribute again, I have stolen for you today a presentation by more favorite people I have never met combining some of my favorite things: theatre, comedy, poignant anti-45 commentary, and surprise endings!

I don't see how they can sustain this much longer.

So let's tally:

• 45 wouldn't know the truth if it placed itself in his tiny man-child hands.
• Sessions DID have contact with Russia.
• Conway is a master manipulator to the point of coining "alternative facts."
• Bannon runs/ran a "news" site that is one bat boy sighting away from the National Enquirer.

Let's all sing the chorus together, shall we?  And listen closely to the third verse.

I didn't watch HIM.

I thought maybe I'd try.  Then life got in the way and I just forgot about it.  In hindsight, I don't think I could have handled listening to him for that long anyway.  I don't know how I managed to watch any GOP primary coverage or the debates.  Just the sound of his voice sickens me let alone stopping to think about what he is actually spewing from his ignorant yob.

Glossing over headlines and a few quotes shows me that many pundits, including Van Jones, one of his most staunch detractors, actually praised him for being more presidential tonight.  Of course, all of his supporters are gushing over this speech.

I didn't watch, but I did read the transcript; that was hard enough because I can hear his nasty, condescending voice in my head.  Here's what I got out of it: for one night, he learned how to listen to his advisers and actually remain on task, stay calm and steady, stick to script, not embellish (lie) as much, and try to show some empathy.  The thing is he is a 70-year old man-child who is not going to change who he is at this stage in his life; seniors stubbornly hold firm to what they think they know, and it's hard to reign children in for long.  He is who he is as he has proven time and again over the past year and a half.  He is a showman, and he put one on tonight.

Most of what I read was unimpressive.  He continued his trend of throwing around big figures that rhyme with -illions, whether talking about how his "plans" are going to benefit the country or how previous actions have hurt it.  He jumped from subject to subject without much substantiation; all I got out of it was talking points meant to fire up his supporters.  And he shamefully used (and I mean that in the worst possible sense of the term) and manipulated the family members of tragedy and death to further his own agenda.

Just because he put on a slightly more soothing tone of voice, don't be fooled by the wolf in the henhouse.  Even with that tone, in the speech itself he flat out doubled down again on the boarder wall, repealing the Affordable Care Act without a real plan to replace it, and his essential "IMMIGRANTS BAD" stance,  Of course Congressional Democrats were not going to applaud or give a standing ovation to anything he said!  As a side note, I think that is one of the most ridiculous, over-used traditions (for lack of a better word) that our government employs; I cannot abide the constant up-down, up-down standing ovation given to presidents during speeches of this nature.  Save it for the big moments.

So, no 45, you are still not my president.  You did not prove anything new to me tonight.  You cannot snake oil your way through one speech while still signing orders to blindly deny anyone healthcare, eliminate the advancement of the arts, ignore science, and hinder human rights to all people.  Your so-called administration is the epitome of fascism, and there is absolutely no room for it in our nation.

#resist