Sports and government-watching...

It's a balmy 30 degrees (improvement over yesterday's 19), and it's Thursday. Baseball is officially over for the year, with the historic win by the Texas Rangers over the Arizona Diamondbacks. I was mildly rooting for the Rangers, since one of my favorite Red Sox pitchers ended up there, and he pitched last night's game. 

Patriots football is a dumpster fire this year, and I have my theories why, but it's just a mess. I'll remain faithful, but being faithful does not mean I have to be uncritical. And I think that's the point I wanted to talk a little about this morning. There are those in our country and especially in positions of power and influence who would even deport (!!) people who are critical of the federal government. No dissent over the funding of the war in Israel/Gaza is being tolerated. Both of these acts of silencing are far too close to fascism for me. 

I love my country, but some of the things going on make me cringey and angry. I feel the same way about co-workers, students, and family members. When we give a damn, we see the faults as well as the good stuff, and we want so very much for the faults to be corrected. It's only when we stop caring that we don't offer suggestions for improvement. That is not to say I'm always right, or the other folks are right; quite often, the solutions are somewhere in the middle--compromise. 

The new Speaker of the House is promoting some really spurious and costly (read: stupid) ideas already. Buckle up, right? Cutting billions from the IRS to fund Israel is not a good plan, economically. That's not how it works, and if he (and his adherents) would just take a deep breath and hold it for a few minutes, they'd listen to the CBO and other, more experienced folks. Likely, the governmental stalemate and dysfunction will , which will only serve to undercut our standing with the rest of the global adults at the table. 

Sigh. 

That all said, I'll do what I can. And I'll watch the Bruins.

Take care,

C