I'm back.

Happy New Year!

To those of you who were reading last year, I'm sorry I disappeared for eight months.  I think I got overwhelmed with trying to write something clever and intelligent and meaningful every day.  That, and since most of my posts became political, I was simply exhausted, because that's what our current "leadership" is: exhausting.

So I'm going to try this again for 2018.  I won't be writing daily, and I will try to vary my topics.  I had a pretty good year despite our wretched state of global affairs, and I'll get into some of those things in the near future.  I will also continue to be vocal and adamantly defiant of this administration.  However, for now, I wish all of you a happy, healthy, prosperous new year full of success, joy, and love.  I pray we find peace, or at least common ground, with each other in all things.  I'm looking forward to sharing my insights and experiences with you again.

Here we go . . .

Are you completely brainless??

First off,
                                 

In all it's forms, in all it's meaning, in all it's so-called greater good, FUCK WAR and fuck all of you who support it.

Forty-Five has just entered his W phase: as soon as those planes hit the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, I said "Here is Bush's chance to go to war; this will be his legacy moment to prove he was the same kind of president as his father."  Sure enough, we trooped off to war where we didn't belong, and we're still there today.  Now, our hate-baiter inept leader has expensively opened the gates for us to enter another one.  Aside from the millions of dollars wasted on sending so many of these missiles at one target when we can't fund Meals on Wheels, Planned Parenthood, and the NEA, this feels like another far-too-convenient strategy to once again distract from the Russia investigation, and all I can see is this lovely piece of hypocrisy:
                                 
                                   

There is an interesting CNN video clip making its way around the interwebs, of course from 45's supporters.  In it, a survivor of a previous chemical attack praises 45 and his strike, calls American liberals hypocrites for not speaking out against anything before or after the travel bans, and begging for more help so they can stay in their country rather than become refugees in the first place.  I get it: your home is your home.  You shouldn't be made to feel like you have to leave it.  But should a situation get so bad that you cannot live with it or you can no longer fight against it, there is no shame in removing yourself.  Being a refugee does not equate become an ex-patriot or instantly becoming a citizen of the land to which you are escaping.  When the cloud lifts, you can go home again.  Our decrying of the travel bans is our version, however small in the grand scheme of it all, of giving you another option.  The attacks against your people, be they from your own government or Russia or whomever, are an attack against your humanity.  Our trying to keep our borders open to you is a part of ours.  And as a side note, any of you right-wingers who are flaunting this video around as support for how great the Decrepit Cheeto is, don't you dare ever say again that CNN is a biased, lefty, lying, fake news station; they just heard and shared your voice.

A friend posted this early today in response to our actions (and yes, "our" because what our president does reflects on us all); I couldn't have said it better:

Why is that some people only applaud war or military action? Why are humanitarian efforts demonized and seen as weak? I think hiding behind the thin veil of bigotry towards Muslims is a much more weak stance than stepping up and doing what is right to help a fellow human being.

The US was doing something right in accepting refugees fleeing from the war between Assad & ISIS. It was Trump's choice to exploit his follower's bigotry towards Muslims and BAN them within the past couple of months.

Think about what you support. If the US hadn't done this ridiculous travel ban, then maybe I would be fooled by this 'coordinated' military action. We showed who we are, and what we think of the Syrian people. The rest of world is not so easily fooled. Why are so many Americans fooled just because of one military strike?

To quote someone else:

"Tonight America bombed Syria because it says its leader was brutally gassing and slaughtering his own innocent people; the very same people we won't let into our country because America thinks they are too dangerous. #uspolicy"

If your supported or applauded the Muslim ban, then why do you care about these chemical attacks? People have said to me, "but there were children who were gassed!" Yes. And the Muslim ban denied women and children from seeking refuge in the US because they "might" be dangerous. If they might be so 'dangerous', then why do you care if they were gassed to death? If you supported the ban, then fully own why you were supporting it. If you were not outraged at the the Muslim ban, or the denial of refuge of Syrian refugees, you do not get to now be shocked at what is happening in Syria. The rest of us could see the potential of this happening. But we were the "ridiculous" ones protesting the Muslim ban.

Until he proves otherwise, don't be fooled that he gives a damn about Syria.  Right now, this was a half-cocked, unconstitutional action made without Congressional support by someone more concerned with protecting his own image and (already tarnished) legacy than any of the lives he claims to be protecting.  Step up to the truth, Donnie, whatever it is.

Somebody remind me not to put the horse before the cart.

So an interesting turn of events tonight; this one requires a little set-up:

It's no secret I have been playing showtunes for my kids since they were born.  My daughter has clearly shown interest, especially in the past few months.  My son has been a harder sell, despite a great video I got of him when he was two smiling and bobbing along to "Mamma Mia."  I've waxed enthusiastic about how much they enjoyed going to see the filming of Newsies and asked to have the cast recording put on their tablets, then his surprising me with asking to also get the recording for Big Fish after having only heard a couple of songs on the radio.  He has not shown any interest in performing,  He yawned and stared blankly through his school concert a few weeks ago, giving a pretty clear impression he has no interest in singing.  The music school where he is taking piano lessons also runs a musical theatre workshop and is having a musical theatre summer camp, which they are advertising with a big banner in the window of the shop.  I half-jokingly point it out to him each week, but he says "I don't want to sing and act.  I only want to play the piano."  Okay, so I'm not (really) pushing.  The fact that he is showing interest enough to enjoy and appreciate it is good enough for me.

Cut to today: his principal (who is also my wife's boss) is on the board of a community theatre in town.  She tells me he has told her their next production is going to be Oliver!  I say to her, "Too bad we can't convince our son to be a part of it," since the show needs a bunch of boys.  Putting my son to bed tonight, I take a stab anyway.  I tell him about the show, reminding him of some of the songs we have heard on the radio.  He gets that look that we probably all did as a child that is so difficult to explain - a mix of excitement and embarrassment that really defies description - and says to me, "I want to do it if I can."  I can't tell you how thrilled that makes me!  For him to suddenly come around and show any bit of interest in participating in a show fills me with such glee I can't even say.

So here is where the request to pull me back comes in.  First of all, I don't know when they are holding auditions; I'm guessing it's in the fall and he may lose interest by then.  Second, and I thought about this well-after bringing it up to him in the first place, he's only seven; he may still be too young. I hope I haven't sparked something only to have it dashed just because of his age.  So I need a little help to calm down and not get over-zealous about this.  And it is just community theatre; not to discredit them: I've had some great times with very talented people in community theatre, but it's not like this will suddenly set him off on his life's journey.  But if he can get bit by that proverbial bug the same way I did, I couldn't be happier.

I haven't felt much like writing lately.

I'm really not sure why.  Maybe I just don't think I have much to say right now.  There is not much new and exciting happening around me recently.

I'm tired of talking about the world's least favorite band, 45 and the Shambles.  Nothing they do surprises me anymore.  Infuriates, yes; surprises, no.  Russian ties, defunding life-changing and life-saving organizations, nepotism, denying science, spending my money on extra unnecessary security and multiple vacations - yeah, I'm livid with all of them.  But it's all same song, different dance with them.  It's Top 40 radio with a rotation of the same six songs every hour.  We need another Nirvana to disrupt the mainstream, and fast!  And I really don't want to hear any more impeachment speculation or opinions.  Unless proceedings are actually going to take place, just don't talk about it; it gets too many hopes up to just be crushed.  Let's just focus on the elections next year because I don't see anything getting accomplished in the next twelve months.  We're stuck for now; thanks a lot gun-toting, racist, fake Christian ignorants south of the Manson-Nixon line.

There may be a psychological component at work.  The beginning of April is not a good time of year for my family.  April 1 was my father's birthday; he passed going on fourteen years ago.  My maternal grandmother also passed away this day twenty years ago.  Today was my maternal grandfather's birthday, who has been gone over twenty-four years.  We also lost my father-in-law two years ago this week.  I may be in my quiet bit of solitary mourning this week as I miss them all very much.

Recent good things to write home about: I received a pseudo-promotion with the full support of my Directors and VP; my son still clamors for reading Harry Potter every night; and my daughter is absolutely loving this new Netflix show about the performing arts, Julie's Greenroom, from the Jim Henson shop and starring Julie Andrews - I really recommend this show for all parents or if you work with kids, especially if they have shown any interest in the arts at all; it is very cute and encompasses everything, featuring several celebrity guest performers such as Carol Burnett, Alec Baldwin, Bill Irwin, and Idina Menzel.

So that's all I got tonight.  Peace, love, and song.  Hold your family close.

Your administration is full of imbeciles.

As if you expected me to say anything different . . .

Let's take a look at the latest bits of insulting lunacy, shall we:

• Your "president" actually handed the German chancellor a fake invoice for what he thinks is backpay due for NATO spending!  Not only that, but the calculations go back to 2002, it is in the amount of £300 BILLION (yes, with a B), and that amount includes freaking INTEREST!! Clearly he has no clue how NATO works.  But didn't he also threaten to pull us out of it, too?
• Your "vice-president" continues to sit back on his holier-than-thou high horse to break Senate vote ties that will significantly, and potentially (heaven forbid) irreparably, harm millions of citizens.  First it was to confirm the ignorant Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary, thus threatening the livelihoods of thousands of educators and, perhaps even more damning, the education of thousands of children.  Today it was using his religious beliefs to allow states to defund Planned Parenthood, thus taking away health care from thousands of women across the country.  Knowing that his entire argument is about an uber-Christian ideal of pro-life, he apparently hasn't read the information that NO GOVERNMENT FUNDING GOES TO ABORTIONS!!!  The money he has just voted against giving to this organization will do so much more harm to women who need PP's other services.
• Your Environmental Protection Agency head his/your fearless leader have signed off on another order essentially dismantling all progress we have made towards the fight against climate change, continuing to ignore all science; and once again arbitrarily killing off one more thing President Obama did during his tenure just because it was his.
• White House aides supplied the reports to your House Intelligence Committee chair to help support the ridiculous wiretapping claims.  Meanwhile he continues refusing to recuse himself in the Russia investigation, now claiming it is Democrats who aren't really serious about it, thus trying to throw up yet another distraction to make it go away.
• And finally (today), your "first daughter" (is that even a thing when she is a grown woman formerly with her own life?) is making her White House role official rather than just taking up an office.  Personally, I still don't understand how she and her husband are allowed to have these positions.  According to U.S. Code › Title 5 › Part III › Subpart B › Chapter 31 › Subchapter I › § 3110, which addresses the employment of relatives (copied from Cornell University Law School, emphasis mine):

(a)For the purpose of this section—

(2)

“public official” means an officer (including the President and a Member of Congress), a member of the uniformed service, an employee and any other individual, in whom is vested the authority by law, rule, or regulation, or to whom the authority has been delegated, to appoint, employ, promote, or advance individuals, or to recommend individuals for appointment, employment, promotion, or advancement in connection with employment in an agency; and

(3)

“relative” means, with respect to a public official, an individual who is related to the public official as father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, first cousin, nephew, niece, husband, wife, father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, stepfather, stepmother, stepson, stepdaughter, stepbrother, stepsister, half brother, or half sister.

(b)

A public official may not appoint, employ, promote, advance, or advocate for appointment, employment, promotion, or advancement, in or to a civilian position in the agency in which he is serving or over which he exercises jurisdiction or control any individual who is a relative of the public official. An individual may not be appointed, employed, promoted, or advanced in or to a civilian position in an agency if such appointment, employment, promotion, or advancement has been advocated by a public official, serving in or exercising jurisdiction or control over the agency, who is a relative of the individual.

(c)

An individual appointed, employed, promoted, or advanced in violation of this section is not entitled to pay, and money may not be paid from the Treasury as pay to an individual so appointed, employed, promoted, or advanced.

          Now, true, the L.A. Times articles says she will not be paid, so seemingly in compliance with
          subsection c (or whatever it's called at this point in the document) above; but I am more
          concerned with subsection b which says it is not allowed.  Now that said, I would argue that
          the law needs a little tweaking, too, as subsection c sounds to me like it says "So a relative
          really shouldn't be employed, but if they are anyway, it's okay so long as they're not paid."
          Come on, folks; which is it you're more concerned with, nepotism or salary?  But I digress
          (speaking of diversions) . . .

So my point today is there is a lot of BS continuing to transpire in Washington.  It is all happening right under our reap-what-you've-sown noses, and we are all going to suffer for it.  I am fearing more and more that nothing is going to happen to get this tyrant removed early, that we are stuck for the full four years with this disaster.  It may not sound like such a long time, but a lot of damage can happen in four years, and it is going to take a lot longer to dig ourselves out, whenever it is he must finally leave.  I really don't know how to protect my family from what is to come, and that scares me more than anything.

Why is Congress allowing this to go on?!

Of course the obvious answer is "We're still Republicans in the end and we hate(d) Obama."  But the whole thing is just so petty!  What is the point of destroying the work of one man when it was all done with the greater good at heart - what the actual fuck?

I am speaking, of course, of the latest batch of bills he signed to rollback more of President Obama's regulations.  It all seems so ridiculously arbitrary the way he is going about his business of destroying his predecessor's legacy in order to make himself look even better to his supporters; of which I don't understand how there still are any - I guess they all haven't figured out how they are getting screwed by him yet.  And those supporters are blindly, irrationally, potentially racistly (not a word, but you get my meaning) cheering for every word uttered and every pen stroked.  And speaking of pens, he reportedly gave out pens to members of Congress as he signed these new bills like it was a fund raiser or a campaign.  I guess the whole thing is just one big campaign for him because he is always about the attention; how many rallies has he had even though he has already won?  And did you break the bank on those novelty pens, Donnie, or did you just have them mass-produced by the same Bic supplier that every corporation uses for their office supplies and get a million for a penny?  But I digress . . .

I'm really beginning to believe Bannon does have his hand so far up the Trump puppet's ass that it's lost.  I have tried very hard not to buy in so quickly to the extreme-left accusation that the entire right population of Washington are nothing but a bunch of backwards racist dickholes and that's why they fought President Obama so hard for eight years.  At the same time I ask myself "What could they possibly have against him; why do they hate him so severely?"  Even before he got elected, they were against him - WHY??  What was so radically different about him that caused the right to defy him so strongly other than he is an educated, well-spoken person of color?  Makes you wonder . . .

So to my title point, if there are enough Republicans starting to turn on him, and obviously everyone on the left has been against him from the beginning, then why does this continue?  Of course it's an easy outsider opponent thing to say "Impeach him already;" I'm not so ignorant of the process that I think it can happen quickly and easily.  I've said it before, I don't think anything will happen until after the midterm elections next year when the Republicans will most assuredly lose at least one house of Congress due to this disaster.  But I just have to believe that the longer 45 (or Bannon) is allowed to continue spewing trash and making hasty, rash decisions in a vain attempt at erasing the black guy from history that enough people on both sides will say "enough is enough" and do something to work towards getting rid of the real problem, the true threat.  It just has to happen sooner than later . . . doesn't it?

What did your government do for you today?

So for the record, I am not on the Affordable Care Act.  I am thankfully supplied health insurance by my employer.  But as the liberal neo-socialist I am, I cannot be happier for the 24 million Americans who have been given a reprieve today by the defeat of the rushed and ill-thought Republican health care bill.  They will not have to fear the loss of their current benefits.  Those with pre-existing conditions will continue having coverage.  Planned Parenthood will not be defunded.  Medicare will continue to exist.  Thank you to all of the members of Congress who were set to vote against the bill before President Crazypants and Speaker Wonderwonk took the cowardly way out and pulled it.

That said, fuck you to the Republican members of the House who were going to vote against the bill because it didn't go far enough to drive out all memory of the ACA.  Your vote was going to be for the absolute wrong reasons.  Let me be clear: I actually do believe that those Representatives who say they were afraid for their constituents who were poised to lose everything related to their health care should this bill have passed.  I am cursing those who were voting in their own self-interests; those who have been part of the seven-year long tirade against the ACA who just want to see it and anything else President Obama accomplished wiped from history.  These are the politicians who again need to be reminded that they work for us.  They were elected to be the voice of the people who for voted for them, not to just toddle off to Washington to fight like children playing King of the Hill. Today, that voice of the people was heard, and a travesty was avoided.

Now let's turn, regretfully, back to our Oval Office man-child.  He whined that it's all the Democrats' fault; they now own it and it is going to explode.  As he always does, he called out his "losers" in the scenario.  He thanked people who stuck by him like he was giving an Oscar speech.  In an unusual attempt at subtlety (which was really subtle as a freight train), he made a dig, instead of a direct attack, about "learning about loyalty," clearly a jab at the Republicans who broke rank and were going to vote against the bill.  And then should his prediction that Democrats come to him with a desire to build a bipartisan plan when the ACA fails come true, you know he will lord it over them like the fascist he is.  Listen to him here if you can stomach it:

I don't care what anyone says, I like CNN's reporting.  This panel discussing the defeat of the bill and 45's comments after is excellent.  David Gergen, who was an adviser to several presidents on both sides for years, says this may be the worst first 100 days we have ever seen for an American president.  Listen for John King's great analogy around the 2:00 mark.

So as I said after the first ridiculous travel ban was blocked, don't ever let it be said that protesting, attending rallies, and speaking out for your beliefs doesn't work; today we saw another crushing blow to this tyrant.  We can only hope they continue and more members of his party prove just how loyal they are, not to the president, but to their constituencies.  Forty-Five, and frankly all politicians, have to stop treating their jobs as "us against them" between their parties and get back to doing what we sent them there to do, which is to govern how we want them to, not how they and their lobbyists want them to.