Ok, a comment on the news cycle--

I've been assiduously avoiding talking about much of the news cycle, because I cannot grapple with the fact that it seems a large swath of this country has no moral compass. I mean, I know that many people are stuck in an id-ego state. but to fully absolve a public figure of some notoriety of doing things that are clearly both wrong and illegal, and to further that absolution with cries of "they are picking on him" is mind-boggling. 

Whataboutisms abound, and those folks just cannot or will not see that the walking scumbag is using them as props to both his ego and to his planned public events. Cannon fodder. Whole platoons of them. 

In my more depressed moments, I worry that this is the end of the American Experiment. I've been saying that since 3:00am on that fateful day when the monkeys took over the circus. There's been a lot of poo flung since then, and it is starting to stink.

The phrase, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” has been often (misattributed) to 18th century Irish philosopher and statesman Edmund Burke. It was a favorite saying of my father's. It makes it really hard when many of us are trying to do something, and we are stymied by the very rules we hope to uphold. Not one of the Framers of the Constitution could have suspected this level of imprudence and flat-out narcissistic behavior. (They could not have foreseen the use of nuclear weapons or assault rifles, either, but I digress a little.) There are loopholes upon loopholes in the "rules" because it was assumed that the people who would stand for office were there to serve, not be served. That was the whole point of ditching the monarchy. If you take a look at the list of abuses alleged against King George III in the Declaration of Independence, many of them apply today. We are still working on the whole American Experiment, but this awful human and his sycophants have systematically exploited what was a noble idea and bent it out of shape. 

I find it really hard to listen to the news, or even read it, knowing that, for example, there is NOTHING to keep someone from running for President from prison --and serving from behind bars. Who would have ever thought it was a remote possibility? 

We get annoyed when we see that coffee cups have "caution: contents are hot" printed on them. What, are we stupid? But then, we apparently need to have so many guardrails put up because there are those who will do their level best to jump the tracks and take us all with them.

End rant, for now. 

C