My Head Hurts

(Happy Birthday, Fred...wherever you are....)

It's 2 a.m. and I can't sleep because I've been going over and over and over all of this in my mind.

Joy Reid on MSNBC finally did what I've been waiting to hear SOMEone do for months...she pressed her guest (I can't even remember who it was now) to get to the bottom line on how the administration in general and Trump specifically can be held accountable for their slow destruction of the country we have known for so many years.

With the Mueller report pointing to so many criminal activities, but stopping short of indicting anyone, because Mueller says he can't indict a sitting president where do we go from there?

The House, now that the Democrats are in the majority are going to dig deeper and get statements of their own.  But today I learned that Trump has forbidden anyone in the White House to appear before the House.

So they can take it to the courts, but Trump has been stacking the courts with people sympathetic to him and even if they get a judge who has some guts and sides with the House, they take it to the Supreme Court, where Trump's lackey will cast the deciding vote in the president's favor.

I have heard that if this or that (like Trump's tax returns) can't be obtained then they'll have to subpoena them.  Oooooo..... the dreaded subpoena.  And what happens if the subpoena is ignored?  Who will enforce the law?  The Department of Justice, now headed by Trump's personal attorney?  I think not.

I heard today a little thing that has been pretty much ignored because it's a little thing compared to the destruction of our constitution, but they've relaxed the emoluments clause and now it's OK for the president to receive gifts from foreign dignitaries. 

From Esquire:

The so-called foreign emoluments clause was intended to curb presidents and other government officials from accepting gifts and benefits from foreign governments unless Congress consents. But in a forthcoming article in the Indiana Law Journal, the Washington University Law professor Kathleen Clark reveals justice department filings have recently changed tack. The new interpretation, Clark says, is contained in justice filings responding to recent lawsuits lodged by attorneys generals and members of Congress.

Clark’s article notes that in more than 50 legal opinions over some 150 years justice department lawyers have interpreted the clause in a way that barred any foreign payments or gifts except for ones Congress approved. But filings by the department since June 2017 reveal a new interpretation that “… would permit the president – and all federal officials – to accept unlimited amounts of money from foreign governments, as long as the money comes through commercial transactions with an entity owned by the federal official,” the professor writes.

With Trump's barrage of tweets against "fake news" and taking on Fox News as the only true news source (the same Fox news where, as I saw on a clip yesterday, one of the commentators said, following the Notre Dame fire and the rescue of the crown of thorns, that Mary Magdalene had brought the crown to Paris after Jesus death.  Huh?  Not fake news???) the news is so filtered that some people don't hear anything negative against the president.

I remember having a discussion with someone from Facebook when we first learned of the separation of children from their parents.  I was so incensed about that (still am) that even though we have diametrically opposed views on the president, I simply had to explode about what was going on.  Her response was that she thought it was hyped by the media and she hadn't really heard much about it.  There are still thousands of children separated from their parents and now the administration says it may take "years" (!!!) to reunite them.  What do those little children think about their parents?  And where are they?  Surely not in thousands of loving foster homes.

There are so many terrible things going on, or discussed, that it's hard to keep track of which is supposed to help deflect from which bigger thing.  I guess they have decided not to truck immigrants seeking asylum to sanctuary cities now, but who knows...maybe they still plan to do that.  This seems to be an administration that acts first and thinks later (if at all).

I guess at least they reversed the attempt to take away funding for special needs children, after the outcry that caused.  But as a general rule appealing to the administration's softer side is useless, because as a Sociopath, he doesn't have one.  Send him all the pathetic photos of crying children and mothers and it doesn't move him.

You don't hear a lot about the wall these days, except at the Easter Egg Roll on the White House lawn this week, there was a clip of Trump sitting and coloring with a bunch of kids and telling them about the big wall he was going to build and how beautiful it was going to be.

And what is happening to prevent Russia from hacking the 2020 elections?  Despite every single intelligence agency in this country proving that Russia helped to get Trump elected, Trump says his buddy Putin says they didn't do it and he believes him.  

These must be glory days for Putin, who is paying Trump for all he can get out of him, and Trump doesn't even realize that he's being manipulated by a guy who actually knows what he is doing, unlike our president.

I don't know how coherent these thoughts are, but they are what is keeping me awake tonight.

Intelligence

All of the US Intelligence Chiefs appeared before Congress to give a report on the status of our safety.  All of them contradicted Trump on everything, and nobody talked about the southern border as a main concern.

China and Russia pose the biggest risks to the United States and are more aligned than they have been in decades, U.S. intelligence leaders told senators on Tuesday, in testimony that repeatedly contradicted President Donald Trump's statements on global threats.

"Increased co-operation between Russia and China — for a generation that hasn't been the case — that could be a very big deal on the horizon in terms of the United States," said Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats.

Director of  National Intelligence, Dan Coats also said U.S. adversaries likely are already looking to interfere in the 2020 U.S. election, refining their capabilities and adding new tactics.

He said Russia's social media efforts will continue to focus on aggravating social and racial tensions, undermining trust in authorities and criticizing politicians perceived to be anti-Russia.

Trump tweets that they are all wrong and perhaps they need to go back to school.  He also reminded us in a later tweet that he is the smartest person in the world.

As my mother was fond of saying before she lost her marbles, "I'm glad I'm as old as I am" but I do wonder what sort of world Brianna and Lacie are going to live in...if we haven't been blown up by the time they become adults.

---

We said goodbye to Alice Nan in the late morning and had the entire day by ourelves.  Walt spent it upstairs finding gems like this:

Neither of us can remember when (or why) this was taken, but since he does not have facial hair (or a wedding ring) I assume it was in the middle 1960s.

I was downstairs working on projects, including one of the hardest puzzles I've worked in al long time even though it's only 500 pieces.  But it's so hard it's addictive.

I got an early dinner made, which we ate while watching Jeopardy.  I made an instant pot Cajun chicken, which was SO good that I'm glad we had enough to last us two meals.

Marta arrived around 7 and spent the night with dog, Bouncer, and will be back tonight for another night -- then Walt's brother arrives.  They will take Walt to the doctor on Friday.  In truth, I'm not sure t's a necessary appointment because he seems to be getting so much better, but there are a couple of concerns that we wanted to discuss, so might as well keep it and get a urine test to make sure that all of the infection he had is finally gone.

Walt has slept back upstairs in his bed for the last 2 night and seems to be handling it all right.  I had some insomnia until I put on Pride and Prejudice and, as always, was asleep within the first 5-10 minutes.  That movie is better than any sleeping pill!!

Having dinner together again, 400 miles apart

Politics

These were photographed at a Trump rally.  Have we made America great again yet?  While Trump does not have control over what is sold at his rallies....have you ever seen anything like this garbage for sale at anybody else's rally, much less any president, Republican or Democrat?

 

Not only that, but we have killed two children under the age of 10 for Christmas.  The president says the democrats are milking these stories for political purposes.  (The last child who died had to be driven ONE HOUR to a hospital when they finally decided that maybe a 103 fever should have medical attention.  On Christmas Eve.)

Joaquin Castro, chairman-elect of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said that “many questions remain unanswered, including how many children have died in CBP custody.” says the Washington Post.

Gee.  Ya think?

It's been an interesting week for presidential tweets.  There was that picture of himself supposedly signing "lots of bills" at his desk, though congress had not sent any bills to him, the paper on his desk was appeared to be blank....and the cap was on the pen.

There was another picture of him supposedly meeting with Marines about North Korea, though nobody had seen a Marine anywhere near the White House that day.

He's fired people on Twitter and appointed people with zero experience in little jobs like -- secretary of defense.

His new Acting Attorney journal, we just learned, lied on his resume about honors he received in college, which his college denied ever bestowing, and the "bone spur" doctor admitted that he lied for Trump's father that his son had bone spurs so he could avoid the draft...so what difference does it make if you can prove that the Attorney General is a liar?

He says that lots of government employees have support the government shut down and one wonders how they got to him.  Phone?  E-mail?  Nobody has come forward to explain that.  I'm sure Huckabee Sanders has an explanation for all those employees who are happy to give up their salaries so he can get $5 billion for an unneeded wall at Christmas time with their rent due in a couple of days.

And then there is the awkward asking of a 7 year old child if she "still believes in Santa Claus" and then assures her that at her age it is "all marginal."  What the hell was that?  Don't let him anywhere near my 7 year old graddaughter!

At least they found a way to get him to visit the troops during the holidays.  Until now he was the only president since, I think, Truman (maybe Eisenhower), who had not visited any troops anywhere during the holidays.

But a guy wrote this tweet:

ATTENTION JOURNALISTS: If Trump is secretly en route to visit troops, ask if he will be returning to DC or FL. The trip will be cover to get to Mar-a-Lago NYE party where tickets were sold guaranteeing access to the president. He would be using the troops as a distraction.

Makes sense.  If he took off for Mar-a-Lago for party, he'd be eviscerated by the fake press, but now he has a good excuse to be on Air Force One and just drop by his mansion en route home.

---

I was so upset today about the death of the second child (that we know about) under the control of our government that I decided to sponsor a new child.  It's the closest to doing something to help those kids who are living under threat at home.

Actually, I have been seeing her photo everywhere.  I look at Instagram, and there she is.  I look at Facebook and there she is.  I get an e-mail from Compassion with suggested new kids to sponsor and there she is

I finally decided to sponsor her yesterday, but when I clicked on her photo, I got a notice that she was being sponsored by someone else.  I was much relieved.

But then I was looking through Instagram in the car while eating the first fast food meal I've had in six months (didn't taste as good as I remember) and there she was again.

I assumed it was a mistake and surely if I clicked on her name I would get the same message that she had been sponsored.  But no, for some reason she is still available.  Her name is Allison and she is from Nicaragua.

She is the kind of child I like to sponsor -- there are lots of cute kids that are snatched up quickly, but she's the kind of kid I was -- chunky and not very appealing, as witness the fact that she's been waiting for a sponsor for nearly a year.

Not Again

It  was a bit after 3 when I woke up, after sleeping for about 3 hours.  I turned on Morning Joe, hoping it would put me back to sleep.  I thought I had mistakenly chosen the wrong channel because they seemed to be showing a rerun of the Pittsburgh massacre and talking about "11 people killed."

In short order, I realized this was not Pittsburgh, it was Thousand Oaks here in California and another shooter had gone berserk and killed 11 people (12 now, at the time of this writing) and wounded "at least" 12 others. 

With the shooter also killing himself, they may never know what prompted him to open fire on "college night" in "the 4th safest city in the country."  The gun was not an automatic, it was purchased 4 years ago, he has no terrorist connections that they have found yet.  Maybe they can find enough to make a "best guess" scenario, but there are still 12 dead, including a long-time Ventura county sheriff near retirement age.

Once again, my heart hurts and I feel the helplessness of being an onlooker.  Jeri had maybe the best suggestion for all of us:

Assignment for everyone: when you are out in the world this week, look people in the eye and acknowledge them. Smile and say hello. Hold the door for someone. Let the other car go first. Thank the barista. Whatever.

Maybe if we start an epidemic of "kindness" in our communities we can begin to prevent such heinous acts.  Maybe not, but what a more pleasant place it will be  to live.

Kindness did not start in the nation's capital, where the president, crowing about a glowing victory in the midterms (what TV was HE watching??), took on the members of the press and even threw out a CNN reporter and took away his White House access pass, using a doctored videotape claiming the reporter had manhandled a White House staffer, when comparisons between the WH tape and the original CNN tape (and memories of everyone who watched it live) show that he did not.

But this White House is unscrupulous and will go to any lengths to achieve whatever goal they desire.

"CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them.
You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldn’t be working for CNN"

Good news in the midst of all this was checking my blood test results.  Last CK result was 558, this time it's 498.  Normal is <200 .="" better.="" feeling="" font="" i="" m="" nbsp="" no="" wonder="">

With nothing positive but blood tests to think about at home Walt and I took off for Vacaville to meet Char for lunch at good ol' Fenton's.

Fenton's is our go-to meeting place whenever Char and I get together for lunch.  It's a longer drive for her, but she will drive that distance to get a crab salad sandwich.

Fenton's is amazing.  We first encountered it in Oakland and were pleased when they decided to open a shop in Vacaville.  We don't eat there often but it's a special place.

They have humongous sundaes and my complaint is always that there is copious sweet sauce, but the ice cream is piled so high in the bowl that the sauce goes all over the saucer on which it is served.  I got smart one time and requested that my small sundae be served in a larger bowl and I was able to keep most of the chocolate sauce in the bowl so I could eat it with a spoon rather than debate about what people would think of a 75 year old woman licking the plate.

I have never ordered their banana split, which is reported to contain a quart of ice cream.

But we all ordered vanilla malts (loaded with malt!) and crab sandwiches and were very happy with our lunch.

On the way home there was thick smoke in the air, which we thought was coming from the fire that is burning about 100 miles north of here (14,000 people without power right now and mandatory evacuations of several small towns).  The traffic was surprisingly thick and in spots actually stopped, but then we discovered an active fire in the median, which professionals were in the process of putting out.

From there it was clear sailing home and an opportunity to catch up on the latest depressing news from the midterm results and the latest lies from the White House.

The State of My Union

No, I will not watch the State of the Union tonight.  The last thing I need is to spend an hour watching #45 tell us how wonderful he is.  I figure if anything memorable or historic happens, it will be dissected over and over and over again by the talking heads.

Instead, I think I'll watch this....

...and remember when we could be proud of our country.  It's from Letterman's new show on Netflix.  I watched part of it last night and it was so nice to see Obama again, and in such a relaxed form.  And how nice to see a president talk with such love and affection -- and pride -- about his wife.

---

 

We may have finally found our restaurant.  Ever since Cafe Italia, where my friend Kathy and I have been eating lunch every month for the past ~2 years was forced to shut down, we have been searching for a new restaurant in Davis.  We both admitted that though we have been eating in Italian restaurants (the Olive Garden in Sacramento for about 10 or more years, and then Cafe Italia) neither of us were wedded to Italian, so we have tried Mexican, Chinese, burgers, and barbeque, but nothing hit us as the perfect place.  (Davis is replete with Thai and Japanese restaurants, but Kathy doesn't like spicy food and isn't into sushi.) Yesterday we went to Paesano's, which happens to be Italian again, but it seemed to be the right fit.  I had the most wonderful pesto tortellini.

 

Kathy, who normally orders spaghetti "light on the sauce" got exactly that, which she didn't always at Cafe Italia.  She seems to have enjoyed it and agreed to go back again next month.  I'm glad because I saw several other things on the menu I want to try.  I guess no matter what we do, we are destined to eat Italian!

---

 

After lunch, I drove to the post office to mail a few letters and then through the cemetery to check on the flowers we left last night.  I encountered a flock of turkeys and stopped to watch them.  Two of them were either fighting or playing.  They chased each other around and around a tree, first in one direction and then in the other.  Then they'd fly up at each other and back to the ground to chase each other again.

 

I know the turkeys are a big pain in the patootie around town, but I do admit enjoying it when I stumble on them and get to watch them in action (especially from the safety of the car).

Don't Read This Book

If you are, like me, someone who is upset about what is happening in Washington, D.C., maybe you don't want to read David Cay Johnson's "It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America."  I haven't even finished "Fire and Fury," the book about the chaos in the White House, but I've been watching interviews with Johnson and had to check out his book.

I already find myself on the verge of tears about this country I love and what is happening to it.  The combination of my mother and Donald Trump leaves me feeling like the title of an article I read about Judy Garland once, "Always on the edge of a scream."

Jeri tells me there is always hope, but when I read the things Trump has done to destroy the country we all know, I wonder that even if he is no longer in the White House, how long it is going to take to "get our country back."

For example,

• To overhaul the federal Department of Education, Trump chose an heiress with no background in education theory of administration, but an intense desire to promote schooling that is corporate run and free to be religious.
• To run Housing and Urban Development, he picked a retired surgeon with no administrative experience, no housing expertise, and who has said that the Egyptian pyramids were not tombs for dead pharaohs but granaries.
• At Treasury, Trump chose for secretary a Wall Street banker who made much of his fortune aggressively foreclosing on homeowners.
• To run the Environmental Protection Agency, he chose a lawyer who had vowed to destroy it.
• For Surgeon General, a job where a principal duty is to persuade Americans to not take up smoking, Trump named a physician who owned tobacco company stocks.

He is doing his darndest to stifle the free press.  Bit by bit, he's destroying all of the progress Obama made in health care, environmental protection (you will soon be able to drill for oil wherever you want), protection for national parks, etc., etc., etc.

Tomorrow morning, the Trump administration is expected to announce a new rule enabling its civil rights office to shield workers who refuse to provide abortion-related care and services to transgender people on religious grounds. The rule would reportedly allow HHS to punish organizations that don’t allow practitioners to express these objections. This administration will allow "do no harm" to become "my harm to you is religiously based and paid for by your taxes."

Every day there is some new erosion of the advances we have worked so hard to achieve.  When is he going to decide to reverse same sex marriage?  It's obviously coming.

I am only 3% into this book and already I am even more depressed than I was before.

I want to say..."...and the worst part is..." but just when I've said the "worst part" something worse comes along.  One of the worst parts is the silence by most Republicans, who seem to be following along like sheep.  Only a handful are showing any spine at all.  What does the president have on each of them that is making them keep silent?

Another worst thing is that his base is loving this.  I saw a video on Facebook yesterday, made by an enthusiastic Trump supporter.  It was in response to the "shithole" comments and this woman was completely ecstatic.  This is HER president and he's "freaking awesome!"

She kept saying it over and over again.  She was positively orgasmic that this was her president and that he was "freaking awesome."

I was literally sick to my stomach watching her, thinking of the 800,000 young people whose lives hang in the balance while he talks about the shithole countries that they come from and how he wants them OUT of here.

Yeah.  I'll continue reading this book, but it's not going to go a long way toward making me think that there is always hope.

Shithole Countries

I have a strong need to write to my three Compassion children in Haiti and the bunch of them in African countries to tell them that they are loved, that they are special, and that they should never listen to people who tell them otherwise.

I am so angry at what that White House bigot has said today that I can hardly speak.  The man who was born with a golden spoon in his mouth, who has never served his country in the military and who has done nothing but raise and lose money and market his own brand dares to smear an entire segment of the world population with the term "shithole."  He couldn't last one week, maybe not one day, struggling the way the people of those countries live.  

Why are we not getting more immigrants from Norway?  Maybe because it is a better country to live in than this one.  Especially now.  I might think of emigrating to Norway myself (if it weren't such a long commute to Santa Barbara).

---

I returned to Atria, finally, today.  As I suspect she didn't have a clue it's been nearly 2 weeks since I was last at Atria and was unconcerned when I told her I had been in bed for the past 2 weeks (well, recliner, but "bed" sounded better). 

She was bright and conversational today, but was not in "today."  She told me that her sister Marge was finally getting things together, that she'd been in trouble lately, but she was getting her life in order (Marge was Peach's mother who died some 40+ years ago).  She said she needed to see her brother Jim, long dead, and she asked me if I had been with her mother before I came to see her.

At least she was talking about something other than how old she was, and we had a nice conversation about how good it was that Marge was getting things together.  We eventually got around to age and when I mentioned being almost 75, she said in shock "why that's an old, old lady!"  Thanks Mom.  :)

For Christmas, Atria gave each person in the facility this big box called "Storywise."  It's filled with cards on the front of which is a suggestion to share a story and on the back a photo to help prod the memory.  Like this:

 

The idea is to get easy memories flowing, but sadly my mother can't relate to this any more.  There was one card that said something about favorite thing her mother cooked but she couldn't remember anything her mother ever cooked.  If I had asked her about her first home, I doubt she could remember that either.  The box kind of broke and spilled cards everywhere and I ended up taking about half of them home with me because they would not stay neatly in the box.  Maybe I'll use them as journal prompts from time to time...or maybe put some of them into a shape to make a Sunday Stealing list of questions.

When after I realized she couldn't think of anything her mother used to cook, I mentioned the can pile her father kept.  I can't tell you how many times she told us of the big pile of cans her father kept in the back yard and whenever they wanted to do anything he said first they had to move the cans to the other side of the yard.  Later, when she grew up, he admitted it was just a job he could give them to keep them busy.

But she no longer remembers there was a can pile and it's sad that I am probably the only one who remembers the story, now that Peach and Kathy are dead.

Alice

I did not sleep at all last night.  In fact, it was about 9:30 a.m. before I finally dozed off for an hour and a half.  I don't know why. I just could not get to sleep.  I've taken to writing my journal entries in the morning instead of at night, but I've never started one so late!  Thank goodness I don't have a show to review tonight!

I met Alice this week.

Alice is the UCD student who is partnered with my mother, to be her "buddy" and establish a relationship with her.  She will visit her every Wednesday, she tells me (a day of the week I don't have to feel guilty about staying home!)

She's a lovely girl, in her second year at the University.  I can't remember what she said is her major, but picked up on her brother, who is looking at UC Santa Barbara (where Jeri graduated) and Cal Poly (where Tom graduated).  I recommended both schools highly, Santa Barbara over Cal Poly because he thinks he might like to major in theater.

We tried to talk to include my mother who was lost, of course.  Turns out Alice is a theater fan and we both like the same shows, which really left my mother in the dust while we talked about shows and songs and her other brother who is doing theater in San Diego.

I guess Alice sat with us for about 45 minutes until time for her to leave.  I was so pleased to have her there because she got my mother talking animatedly, and when she left, the two of us had little to say to each other again.  

We were sitting at the end of the hall, the opposite end from where she lives and I made some comment about her apartment being at the other end of the hall.  I had to tell that to her about three times and she finally shook her head and said "Well, I'm going to have to think about that because I can't understand a word you're saying."

I think Alice will be good for her.

---

I came home to turn on the news and what a depressing day it was.  It started at 3 a.m. with Morning Joe talking about General Kelly and his comments in support of #45 and how shocked he was that an Amercan Congresswoman would dare to listen in on the private conversation between the president and a grieving widow.  He didn't seem to know that they were in a car and that the grieving widow was listening on speaker phone and that her mother was as incensed as Congresswoman Wilson was, so it was hardy anything circumspect.

But then he said a few things that confused me.  The prez has said that he has called, he thinks, all the grieving families of soldiers killed since he took office.  That's 27 of our military who have lost their lives in defense of this country since January.  If you discount the three who died with LaDavid Johnson, that's 24 phone calls he has supposedly made.

So Kelly says that before he makes the call, he says to Kelly "How do I make this call?  What do I say?"  What did he say the previous 24 times he made that difficult call?  Or maybe 23 times, since at least one family says they were never contacted.

And isn't it convenient that Kelly says he told him, word for word, what he actually said in the "disrespectful" phone call.  Except when Kelly said it he added something to the effect that he was "doing what he wanted to be doing," which softens it a bit, I guess.

Johnson's mother was upset that he didn't seem to know her son's name.  Nor did Kelly.  They also referred to her as "the wife."  

I listened to a recording made by another family that 45 did call.  He said something like "this is a terrible thing."  He never mentioned "death" and he never mentioned that young man's name either, but just that he knew he was a wonderful man and a hero.

I'll give the prez marks for trying, but given the call I heard and the report by Congresswoman Wilson, I think I'd rather not receive a call at all.  

The problem with it -- and with everything with this president -- is that he won't let it go until he gets an apology.  He was still attacking Congresswoman Wilson in tweets this morning.  The whole thing would have blown away quickly had he not made a cause celebre out of it.  But at least more people know of LaDavid Johnson now than would have known of him before.

Today Kelly seems to be trying to trash Wilson and every news report is now centered on that.  "White House chief of staff Gen. John Kelly on Thursday erroneously claimed that Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Florida, claimed credit for securing "$20 million" in federal funding to build a new FBI field office in Miami in 2015, according to a video.  Accusing her of being an "empty barrel," Kelly said Wilson focused more on her own actions than the heroism of the two FBI agents for whom the new building had been named.

"While Wilson took credit in her speech at the dedication ceremony for shepherding legislation naming the FBI building after two FBI agents who were killed in a 1986 gunfight, she did not claim credit for helping to fund the building, according to the video.

"Wilson also spent a considerable portion of her remarks praising the valor of law enforcement, retelling the story of the two slain FBI agents and calling on those who work in the field to stand and be recognized."

Why does this administration have to attack everyone who has anything negative to say.

---

Other than fuming at the news and finally turning it off after about the 10th replay of Kelly's statement.  I spent most of the day working on the new "Randomness" journal and am happy with how it's coming along.  The notebook is 80 sheets of paper and I have to decorate front and back, or 160 pages!

One of the things I included was an article, I think from the BBC, which says that scientists have proven that our brains still work after the body shows no signs of life, so it may be that we "hear" our own death.  "There is evidence to suggest that there's a burst of brain energy as someone dies." Creepy. 

So if a loved one...or maybe more appropriately someone you didn't like all that much...has just died, be careful what you say about them.  They may be taking that memory into the afterlife.

Pinocchio

In an afternoon press conference, Trump said that over the weekend, he wrote letters to the families of the four service members, who died in the deadliest U.S. combat operation of Trump’s term thus far. The letters, Trump said, either have been sent already or will be sent Monday night. He also said he intends to call the families.

Trump then took a moment to compare himself favorably to former presidents, saying he likes to call families “when I’m able to do it.”

“The traditional way, if you look at President Obama and other presidents ― most of them didn’t make calls. A lot of them didn’t make calls. I like to call when it’s appropriate, when I think I’m able to do it,” Trump said. “They have made the ultimate sacrifice, so generally I would say that I like to call. I’m going to be calling them. I want a little time to pass.”

According to someone from Obama's staff, either Obama himself or Joe Biden greeted every plane arriving in D.C. carrying fallen heroes. 

"The commander in chief told a totally irresponsible and disgusting lie in the Rose Garden today, claiming past presidents did not call the families of fallen service members," said a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, Brian Gabriel. "Trump's jaw-dropping, disrespectful lie is not based anywhere in reality and is another symptom of a deep-seated obsession with tearing down President Obama."

Former White House communications director and Obama senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer slammed Trump as “a deeply disturbed ignoramus who is a pathological liar,” while former Obama deputy chief of staff for operations Alyssa Mastromonaco called Trump a “deranged animal.” 

“I know he wrote to the families and I often was with him when he met with families at military bases to commiserate in person,” Fleischer said.

Pete Souza, White House photographer under Mr. Obama, posted a photograph on Instagram of the former president and first lady Michelle Obama consoling the parents of a slain Medal of Honor winner.

“I also photographed him meeting with hundreds of wounded soldiers, and family members of those killed in action,” he wrote. 

Ari Fleischer, who served as spokesman for President George W. Bush ― who launched the United States into the Iraq and Afghanistan wars ― said Bush frequently went out of his way to interact with the military community.

Toward the end of Bush’s presidency, The Washington Times reported that Bush “met privately with more than 500 families of troops killed in action and with more than 950 wounded veterans,” often during private sessions. 

Even the sainted Ronald Reagan was there to honor the heroes when they returned home

What was Trump doing when the four soldiers killed in Niger returned home?

Since the ambush that claimed those four servicemen’s lives, Trump has golfed five times. He doesn't even know if the letters that were supposedly written have been sent yet.

Why does this man lie about everything, even something as easily misproven as this.  Has he never heard of photos?  News coverage?

I find that I am physically ill at the thought of the press conferences this man gave this week, including laughing about how Pence wants to hang all gays.  Big funny joke.  He wants to take away health care from children, birth control from women, health care from a huge percentage of the population.

I won't even talk about all the saber rattling...

 

When is someone in the GOP going to notice?

The Sound of Silence

In the wake of the terrible attack at Charlottesville, politicians on both sides of the aisle have been falling all over themselves condemning the those who were responsible for the death of one woman and the wounding of some 30 or so more.

John McCain:  White supremacists aren't patriots, they're traitors- Americans must unite against hatred & bigotry

Bill Clinton:  Even as we protect free speech and assembly, we must condemn hatred, violence and white supremacy.

Paul Ryan:  The views fueling the spectacle in Charlottesville are repugnant. Let it only serve to unite Americans against this kind of vile bigotry.

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe:  "We need to call it out for what it is. For the white supremacists and neo-Nazis who came to our beautiful state yesterday, there is no place for you here."

Hillary Clinton:  "The incitement of hatred that got us here is as real and condemnable as the white supremacists in our streets.  Every minute we allow this to persist through tacit encouragement or inaction is a disgrace, & corrosive to our values."

President Obama quoted Nelson Mandela.  It seems the only person not offering a stern rebuke and a message for the nation is the president. who offered this weak comment:   “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides."

While his minions were all over the television today explaining that of COURSE he meant to include the KKK, the neo-Nazis and other white supremacists by name, there were a few who were happy with his comments.  This from the Daily Stormer, the neo-Nazi web site:

People all over the country are speaking out against hate groups.  But the man who was after Obama for literally YEARS for not using the term "radical Islamic terrorism" refuses to use the name of any of the hate groups who backed him during his campaign and when asked about them, turns his back and leaves the room.  The man who doesn't hesitate to call out publicly just about everybody in his cabinet, whether they deserve it or not, but who thanks Putin for expelling >700 US employees and who still thinks that despite confession by his own son, the whole "Russian thing" is simply made up by the Democrats remains essentially silent on the domestic terrorists in Charlottesville.

During the rally itself, David Duke, former head of the KKK said this, when interviewed: "the marchers were going to “fulfill the promises of Donald Trump” to “take our country back.”  I guess Trump is continuing to help.  I hope we are not seeing the new direction the country is headed in.

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Other than THAT, Mrs. Lincoln...I've been drooling for weeks over Red Lobster's ads for its current Crab Fest.  I mentioned to Walt that I really wanted to go, and so we went there for dinner last night.  The menu alone was beautiful enough to eat.

I chose the "dueling crab legs," snow crab and Dungeness crab.  Big fat legs bursting with huge chunks of crab meat to dunk in melted butter.  It was great...and I didn't give Walt half of mine, as I usually do at dinner!

 
What a great way to end a day that started out pretty depressing.

The Last Supper

My friend Kathy and I had our very last lunch at Cafe Italia here in Davis. We've been having a monthly lunch for nearly 20 years, I think.  We don't see or talk with each other in between lunches, but have that one hour and a half each month, which we both enjoy.

Initially, because she was still working, we met at the Olive Garden in Sacramento, which was near her work.  When she retired, she decided that since I'd been driving 20 miles each month, it was her turn to drive over the infamous Yolo causeway,  a 3.2-mile long elevated highway viaduct on Interstate 80 that crosses the Yolo Bypass floodplain, connecting the cities of West Sacramento, California and Davis.

(In the wintertime it is flooded, in the summertime it is usually planted with rice and is also a wildlife preserve)

We tried a couple of restaurants in Davis, but Kathy isn't a "foodie," as she says, and prefers plain cooking, so when we found Cafe Italia it was perfect.  She usually has a plate of spaghetti ("light on the sauce").

(Those booths look quite familiar!).  I go for a French dip sandwich with horseradish.  

We sit and talk family and politics.  Walt is not big on discussing politics and it's nice to have Kathy to share frustration with.  During the campaign there was much hope that Hillary would pull it off.  Since the election, and especially the inauguration, there is growing depression at watching the gradual erosion of everything that made this country great to begin with.  I found that more and more yesterday we had little to talk about because it was all so depressing.

There was talk about where to have lunch next month.  Cafe Italia is being forced to close its doors because of expansion of the motel which owns it.  By the time of our next lunch, there will be no Cafe Italia.

I told her it might be irrelevant because the way his nibs is talking, we might be at war by then.  So frustrating watching two little boys just dying to play with their war toys, unfazed by what it would do to the world if they fire off those lovely nukes.

I listen to Trump talking about devastation that the world has never known before and wonder if he has any twinge of a feeling about the thousands of innocent civilians, Korean and Americans, adults and children, would be killed.  But no.  Sociopaths can't feel empathy and every decision he has made since he took the reins of office have shown me that there is absolutely no empathy in his soul.  Trotting out every poor sick or disabled person in the world will have not one iota of impact on this man when he talks about taking health care away from thousands of people.  He won't be happy until "Obama" is erased from history and he doesn't care who is hurt in the process.

So there wasn't much satisfaction in our discussion yesterday and once we had covered what's new with our respective children, it was time to pack it up, pay our bill, and say goodbye to Cafe Italia, which closes in 2 weeks.  

Walt and a group of retirees have breakfast there once a month too and will eat there for their last time next week.

Where will I be able to find crab cakes Benedict locally any more.....?

Goodbye, Cafe Italia.   You will be sorely missed (based on the FULL parking lot and people actually waiting for a table when we left I can tell that everyone in town is trying to get in for one last meal.)

Wacko

In apparent consultation with "his generals" the president has decided to issue a directive by tweet that transgender persons are not to serve in any capacity in the military.  It's not clear which of "his generals" he communicated with, since this was all news to the Pentagon and generals in the field have said they will not comply with a directive issued by tweet that will affect ~15,000 people currently serving their country. Marine Gen. Joe Dunford told the chiefs of the military branches and senior enlisted leaders that the military will continue to “treat all of our personnel with respect.”

("A dishonorable discharge would strip them of access to a number of veterans’ benefits, including mental health and educational help.", says Politico)

The president cites "medical costs" as the primary driver of the decision.  “Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail,” the president wrote, though the military spends five times as much on Viagra as it would on transgender troops’ medical care.

It has been suggested that this out-of-the-blue announcement from the White House was an attempt to distract from the failing "repeal and replace" movement in the Senate, where even McCain voted against it.  As did Senator Murkowski (R-Alaska) despite threats from the White House.

"Early Wednesday, Trump took to Twitter to express displeasure with Murkowski's vote. By that afternoon, each of Alaska's two Republican senators had received a phone call from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke letting them know the vote had put Alaska's future with the administration in jeopardy." (Alaska Dispatch News)

This is where we are with this crazy, wacko administration.  The president continues to hold campaign rallies to hear the cheers of the crowds, he encourages the Boy Scouts of America to boo a former president and thanks them for their votes that helped him win (The Boy Scouts have since apologized to their members for the inappropriate speech by the president).  He claims to be more "presidential" than any president, except for Lincoln and he thinks he should be on Mt. Rushmore.

In the meantime, in seven months he has accomplished nothing of substance, we have become a laughing stock around the world and are poised on the verge of another war.  "This man is mad and dangerous. I wonder what thoughts are going through the heads of the people who voted him in. What percentage of them are now saying 'Oh my God, what have I done!'" writes a friend in Australia.

As the president continues his campaign to oust Jeff Sessions, republicans (Lindsay Graham and Ben Sasse) are finally "drawing a line in the sand" and warning of the repercussions if he should do so.  Will we see more and more Republicans finally speaking out after all these months of looking the other way?

I won't even talk about "the Mooch," who is bringing thuggery into the White House.

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In other "wacko news," I went to see my mother yesterday.  I had not been there since Sunday, since Niecie was with her on Monday and she was "too tired," I thought the podiatrist was coming on Tuesday and he actually came on Wednesday.  I am feeling much guilt because I am starting to dread that trip to Atria now, since you never know what you are going to find when you get there.

I was stopped by one of the aides, who said that she had been awakened for breakfast, but was in one of her anxiety moods, where she didn't know where she was or what she was supposed to do.  They suggested she go back to sleep and I guess she was better when she woke up.

When I got to her room, she was asleep.  Sound asleep.  When she asked who was there and I said "your daughter," she said "My daughter can't be here; she's at work" and then went back to sleep.  The TV was on so I sat there watching TV for half an hour and was just about ready to leave when she sat up, bright and busy tailed, as normal as she ever is, and ready for a visit.

We talked for a long time, though of course she didn't make much sense.  She again wanted to know if I was going dancing tonight.  When I left her, she was in good spirits, walked me to the door and waved at me as I disappeared into the foyer.  There was a message from Jeri asking if I was with her and I said I had just left and I could go back, if she wanted, but she never answered, so I went on home.

Apparently Jeri then called her and she didn't answer.  Owell.  It was nice while it lasted!