To quote the fictional Dr. Ian Malcolm's Famous "Jurassic Park" understatement: "I'm fairly alarmed here."

Good morning, friends.  I have to get to work in a few minutes but just am popping on my little Chromebook here to say:  have we all become so numb and/or glazed over re anything 45 does or has done that we just now learn of, that we are incapable of complete, or even a modicum of, outrage at the man, and are too exhausted to even fathom taking to the streets to demand he be removed from the ballots of every single state in this precious union on account of his utter criminal lawlessness and constitution violating?  What am I on about specifically?  Well, I'll tell you:

So CNN is reporting this fine a.m. that 45 called Wayne County, MI election canvassing board members (oh, and, by the way, THERE ARE TAPES) and pressured them not to certify the 2020 election results.  One of the people he called said that he told her he was "concerned for her safety" if she certified the election results.  Folks, have you ever heard of a little something called THE MAFIA?  That is a straight-up mob tactic of the most classic variety!!!!!!!!!  That's the quintessential:  "It would be a shame if anything happened to your family..." threat!!!!!!!!!

Let this all sink in because the POTUS was personally calling and threatening the Wayne County officials NOT to certify the results of a free and fair presidential election in this country.

Now, I know what you all are thinking:  "And?  How is this different from any of the zillions of other calls and actions and tweets in a typical day of the 45 presidency?"  And you are right:  it's not different.  It's the same, and we SHOULD get riled up about it, not just finish our breakfast and off to work, normal day.  THIS MAN CAN NEVER BE PRESIDENT AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You know how he always projects his terrible traits onto others when he attacks?  Well another way he projects is that he always says that if "they" (othering at its finest) win, "we won't have a country anymore".  Wrong, 45:  if YOU win, America will only be the same in name only.

Get alarmed, people.  Get active.  VOTE in 2024.  We can't afford numbness and exhaustion.

Nes Gadol Haya Po

I'm starting Chanukah before Chanukah this year, musing-about-it-wise. It takes on such an intense poignancy this year. So here is my musing for/about Chanukah 5784:

The miracle is that we are still here.
We are the light that won't go out.
Despite everything.
Despite that this year people are trying to rewrite history.
And rewrite the present.
We refused to let our light go out thousands of years ago.
We refused be extinguished.
We refuse to let our light go out now.
We refuse to be extinguished.
The candles stay lit.
Nes gadol haya po.

Cue music!

(The song linked below, Bohemian Chanukah, by Six13, has many lighthearted and even utterly hilarious moments, yet also moments that convey the deeper meaning of Chanukah which, like I said at the top of this musing, is feeling very intense this year to me.)

Bohemian Chanukah, by Six13

Shloshim: 30 Days of Grief

I was young, yet I well remember, when the American hostages were taken in Iran.  Not only was it the top story in the news for the duration (and it was a long duration), it 100% gripped the nation.  America had never (in my young lifetime at that point, anyway) felt so helpless before.  And America, a superpower, was not used to and did not like feeling helpless.  Yellow ribbons adorned trees in every yard, in every park, everywhere.  Many people (not I, but many--mostly Republicans--who didn’t like President Jimmy Carter anyway) were clamoring for President Carter to do something drastic, and tee-shirts abounded that said bellicose things like “Nuke Iran”.  The American people—no matter whether you favored diplomatic channels, full on nuking of the hostage takers and the entire country (including all the innocent civilians in same, presumably) they were in, or anything in between—felt completely committed to getting the hostages back.

Yet now, when the brutal terrorist group, Hamas, has invaded Israel and massacred 1,400 innocent Israeli civilians, including babies in their cribs (shot through their heads and/or worse), elderly Holocaust survivors, entire families, entire (or nearly so) kibbutzim, kids at a peace-oriented music festival, and taken approximately 240 hostages, many of the adult children of those same Americans who, back during the Iranian hostage crisis, wore “Nuke Iran” shirts, are opting to take to the streets to cheer the terrorists who slaughtered innocent Israelis, and who took and still have approximately 240 hostages (including about 20 Americans, by the way).  And people are mischaracterizing Israel’s actions of self-defense after they were attacked brutally and are in an existential fight, and their actions to try to free all the hostages, using terrible and terribly inaccurate words to mischaracterize them, and words which are not only unfair, ignorant (at best) of what those words actually mean/what the actual definitions of them are, and inaccurate, but which are very triggering, to use a pop psychology word de jour which is very apt here, to the Jewish heart and soul, given our history.

Just ask yourselves this:  what would America do if a terrorist group, bent on our destruction (in their written charter, and obviously by their actions), invaded our country via Mexico or Canada, proceeded to massacre 1,400 innocent civilians as I described in more horrific detail above, but it bears repeating that it included babies:  let this sink in, they intentionally massacred babies—and also kidnapped 240 hostages—also including babies, again, let this sink in, please—and proceeded to take the hostages to underground tunnels, strategically and *intentionally* located under civilian-infused places, such as hospitals, apartment buildings, etc.?  Would we have been happy if, *the next day*, people in other countries were out in the streets, cheering for the terrorists?  What if people kept telling us we should stop trying to eradicate the terrorists, who not only did all of the above and are still holding the hostages (did I mention there are BABIES, that there are many CHILDREN, and many are not with their parents, they are just with the terrorists, in God knows what conditions and enduring God knows what treatment?), because innocent civilians—which the terrorists have intentionally put in the line of fire—are getting hurt, and we should have a ceasefire?  What if that terrorist group had been in charge of a territory on our border for YEARS, and had been firing rockets into the US for all those years, even before the above-described massacre/slaughter/pogrom?

I know that there are so many Palestinians who are innocent victims in all this, but it is not doing them any favors to leave a brutal terrorist group that only looks at them as human shields in charge.  Hamas has got to be eradicated from Gaza, period.  What would we do if a terrorist organization on our border had infiltrated America, massacred a bunch of innocents in very brutal fashion, taken HUNDREDS of hostages (did I mention including children?), and was talking loudly about doing more of the same, as well as still firing rockets into the US of A as they did that?

Would we appreciate people cheering in the streets for the terrorists, and telling us to stop trying to save our people (and all the other hostages) and eradicate the terrorists and destroying the terrorist haven they had built on our border?  Would we appreciate people going to City Council meetings, for example (this happened in my city) and saying the Council should not have passed a resolution against hate toward us, and that they should repeal that and another one they passed later that simply stands with us and against the terrorists who attacked us?

I’m just asking.

Am Israel chai!

I was going to take the weekend totally off of being on my laptop, as I finally finished a project at work on Friday, which I've been working arduously on since 6/16/2023.  The project involved overusing my "mouse hand" so much, and I really want to give it a well deserved and needed rest this weekend.  No computer mouse, no trackpad on my personal Chromebook here, nothing, just rest and recovery.  Yet here I find myself on Sunday, unable to take care of myself the way I was hoping to, as I'm unable to stay off this dang thing for even one weekend right now.  Why?

Because I'm so horrified, dismayed, frightened and furious.

I watched a recording of this past week's City Council meeting last night, in which quite a few, mostly quite young, and 100% extremely ignorant of history, and clearly antisemitic people stood up and demanded that the City Council rescind a resolution it passed a few weeks ago, which was against antisemitism.  The resolution was proposed and passed a few weeks ago, after a local synagogue received a threat, and was in response to that and to the rising tide of antisemitism in our city (and country, and the world).  These people, which horrifyingly, disgustingly and infuriatingly to me included the minister of the local UU church, stood up one by one and asked Council to rescind their resolution against antisemitism.  But that's not all.  They also asked them to rescind another, subsequent resolution, passed in response to the horrific October 7th Hamas terrorist attack/massacre/kidnappings, and that resolution which they also asked to have rescinded was in support of Israel.

One by one, I saw people stand up and rail against Israel, and call it a bunch of horrific names which I refuse to even give oxygen to by listing here, but they are all FALSE, and based on a very clear and shocking ignorance of history and facts.  So let me just say this:

1.  Israel is not a colonizer.  You cannot colonize your own home, from whence you originate.  Both Jews and Palestinians come from the same place.  We are cousins.  There is genetic evidence of this--scientific proof:  "Archaeologic and genetic data support that both Jews and Palestinians came from the ancient Canaanites, who extensively mixed with Egyptians, Mesopotamian, and Anatolian peoples in ancient times. Thus, Palestinian-Jewish rivalry is based in cultural and religious, but not in genetic, differences."  (Source:  NIH National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information, readily accessible with two seconds of Googling).  Repeat:  we're cousins.  Therefore:

2.  Jews are not, as I just said, "colonizing"/"colonizers", and are not "white supremacists".  We are from the land, just as our cousins are.

3.  We didn't just decide to leave, we were driven out by *truly* colonizing, occupying powers.

4.  Fast foward to 1948, the then British territory which they dubbed Palestine was going to be split in two, between the Jews and the Arabs, but the latter said no, we want it all and we will drive the Jews into the sea.  So the original boundaries of the modern state of Israel instead were larger than what they would have otherwise been, had the Palestinians accepted the original, fair, two-state partition plan.

5.  In response to being attacked in later years, by neighboring states going to war against Israel, and the subsequent self defense response of Israel, yes, Israel's territory expanded.  Because Israel won those wars which they did not start.

6.  Israel is still a tiny nation, geographically, surrounded by enemies (except Egypt, which has been living in peace with Israel for some time now, although clearly they are still not huge fans).

7.  I had a great, very wise teacher in college.  She told us that, often in life, people will try to tell you that a given situation is "either/or".  But really it's "both/and".  To be for Israel, you do not need to be against Palestinians.  And, please hear and understand this, to be for Palestinians, you do not need to be against Israel.  The two are cousins.  The two are both from the same land.  The two both have the right to live there.  No one is some "colonizing" group of "white supremacists" and no one is, or is doing, the other horrific labels and words I heard flung around City Council chambers by clueless mostly 20-somethings in this horrific and frankly seriously traumatizing City Council meeting, after which I personally will never be the same.  I've now gone completely tribal and no one is going to hurt my tribe if I have anything to say about it.  But I digress.  Wait, no, actually, I don't digress, because that's precisely the point of this post:  I DO have something to say about it:  stop all the ignorant, history-denying, antisemitic, LYING disinformation and misinformation!  Israel and Israelis have a right to exist, to be there, to be HOME.  So do the Palestinians.  We have to find a way to shut out all the noise from ignorant, hate-inciting, clueless, history-altering outsiders such as those speaking (and yelling) at the City Council meeting I saw the recording of yesterday, and we, Jews and Palestinians, have to find a way to realize that we are family.  We have to start from realizing we both have a right to be there.  Then, somehow, we have to figure out a way to make it safe and rights-infused and healthy and wonderful--let's aim for the stars--for us to be there.  Together.  There's no other way but together.  We have to get it together, literally.

I'd love to end this post there but, honestly, realistically, I have to add that I know it is going to get a whole lot worse before we get to that much better place--if we can--that I just dared hope for in that last paragraph.  Frankly, this ex-flower child doesn't want a ceasefire right now, and I don't think it is right that some are asking Israel to "consider a pause".  Frankly:  eff that, Israel was attacked and massacred and the attackers and massacre-ers, namely Hamas, MUST BE TAKEN OUT OF THE EQUATION.  Now.  Also, Hamas took 210-ish hostages and we must try to get them out of there alive, if possible, too.  Do I want innocent Palestinian civilians to be hurt in the process?  NO, but that is the fault of Hamas, they (Hamas) created this untenable situation in which Israel has to act in self defense.

There is a difference, I have concluded after decades of wrestling with this, between self defense and violence.  Not that the former doesn't unfortunately involve the latter sometimes, but they are not the same, morally.  If you walked into your house and saw someone there murdering your child, would you stage a non-violent protest?  Would you "take a pause" and try to work it out?  Or would you stop the killer from killing your child by any means necessary?  That is self defense, which in my strong and long-thought-about opinion extends out from one's self to one's family, and really to one's people/country/tribe.  Are we all one human tribe?  Yes.  But do we have "families" within that?  Also yes.  And no one is going to hurt my Jewish family without me speaking up and saying:  we have the right to exist, we have the right to exist in our homeland, and we have the right to defend those two rights.  And anyone who says we don't, and who further decides to hurl a bunch of horrific, ignorant of history/facts/reality, inaccurate and attacking labels and names at us, doesn't know what they are talking about, and is also WRONG.

Am Israel chai!

We've Opened the Box

Climate Change Update:

Eating breakfast and preparing to start work, while the meteorologist on Bay News 9 informs me from my television that the heat index is currently 100 degrees.  It is 8:10 a.m.

She goes on to say it (the heat index) will be 110 this afternoon and people should stay inside in air-conditioning if possible.

Last night, I watched in horror as a river in Alaska raged, and a whole house collapsed off a bluff next to it, into the river.  My horror was not mainly due to the house falling into the river, it was due to the river itself:  it wasn't supposed to be surging and raging, bursting its seams with water.  That wasn't supposed to be rushing water at all.  It was melting glaciers.  That water was supposed to be frozen glaciers, but instead the glaciers are melting exponentially faster than previous scientific models and warnings of climate change predicted.  I've been shouting about climate change (then referred to as just "the greenhouse effect") since I was a kid in the 1970's.  Very, very few people believed the science and the few people who were sounding the alarm back then.  This is one of those few times when I get zero satisfaction from being able to say "I told you so."

I don't want to see what should be solid, frozen, climate-controlling glaciers rushing past as a raging river, taking houses off of bluffs on its way past.  I don't want to know that a monster hurricane or several will almost surely strike Florida this summer, as the ocean surrounding us is like a cauldron of boiling water.  I don't want to be advised by the meteorologist on television to stay inside the house, and bring water if you even have to drive to work, as you may overheat in the car.

What have we done?  With the images of that river in Alaska last night, I now get the feeling:  it's too late to turn back.  One of my favorite television shows of all time was/is LOST.  There was a set of mysterious numbers (4 8 15 16 23 42; yes, I still remember the numbers!) that figured centrally into the story and themes of LOST.  There was a character who was tormented by the numbers in his mind, and was in a mental institution.  Another character, Hurley (you may recognize the name, as I named my dog after him), went to the institution (where he had once also been a patient, and had met Lenny and heard him repeating those numbers over and over again) in an episode, to try to get answers about the numbers from Lenny, the tormented character.  As Hurley talked to Lenny, he told Lenny he'd come to believe that the numbers are cursed.  He told Lenny that he played them in the Lotto and strange things kept happening ever since.

Lenny got a look of horror on his face and became extremely agitated.  "You used those numbers?!  You shouldn't have done that.  You've opened the box!  It doesn't stop."

That's how I felt, watching what should be solid glaciers raging down a river as melted water:  we've opened the box.  We shouldn't have done that.  It doesn't stop.

Planet Claire

I'm in the throes of some kind of very intense, poignant nostalgia tonight.  It started when I somehow got thinking about the B-52's first album and how much I love it.

Fall.  1979.  It was my first semester of college.  I was in Vermont.  I was falling in love.  It was one of the happiest times of my life.  It was also when I first heard this album.  One of my friends in my dorm was playing it.  "WHAT is that?  What IS that?!!!"  I was instantly and forever obsessed, mesmerized, and completely captivated.  This whole album, in my opinion, is a masterpiece.

I must have listened to this a thousand times, back in my beautiful, magical green mountains of Vermont.  Back then, I, and others from my particular mileau, tribe, posse, pack and/or ragtag band of hippie punk new wave flower children were already shouting about climate change, which wasn't even called that yet (it was called "The Greenhouse Effect" at the time).  SHOUTING about it, warning about it, but no one was listening.  We didn't have social media.  Our voices weren't amplified.  No one believed us anyway.  Bunch of hippie flowerchild punks, they thought.

Tonight, in 2023, the same green mountains that I listened to this song in over and over and over again, in 1979 and beyond, are flooded.  Whole towns.  Because:  climate change.

People--most people, anyway--believe us now.  Everyone is starting to understand that human activities really do impact the environment, and while the environment is forgiving, there are limits.  And we've reached them.  And we've exceeded them.  And now Canada is on fire, California is on fire, my beloved Vermont is awash in flood waters, the coral reefs in the Keys are dying, the ocean surrounding Florida has hit unprecedented high temperatures.  Our world is on fire.  Our house is on fire.

This song that I love so much is exactly the same as it was in 1979, but the world, the world... it's changed.  We've changed it.  And if there is any hope of putting the genie back in the bottle, we have to behave in harmony with nature, now.

One of my very favorite songs, from the B-52's masterpiece first album, this is "Planet Claire".

It's a very good day for America

I wish the pundits would stop saying that this is a sad and/or sorrowful day for the country, as I think it is the exact opposite.  As I've posted about recently on this, the rule of law is precisely what makes the United States of America truly great.  It isn't the only thing yet it is one of the bedrock, foundational things that is actually quite special about us:  no person is beneath the law, or above the law, and that includes the POTUS.

So, if the POTUS is a treasonous, traitorous, law-breaking, constitution-flouting... I could go on, but you get my gist:  if the POTUS commits crimes, it would be a sad and sorrowful day for our country if he or she were to NOT get indicted and then, today, arraigned.

I personally am celebrating.  I am so relieved.  When the indictment first came down, I felt a sense of relief for my country that I haven't felt since before the day after election day, 2016.  On that day, I learned that 45 had won--45 had become 45.  On that day, I felt a sense of peril and terror that I've never, ever felt before for my country.  I clearly saw 45's potential to do all of what has since unfolded.  I clearly saw that our democracy, our constitutional republic, was in great peril.  With this indictment, and now arraignment (but I first felt the following with this indictment), I now feel RELIEF.  We made it.  We survived 45 (<--omg, I want a teeshirt that says that!).

We have a lot of pathology going on in our country.  I'm not saying we are in a state of perfect health as a country.  But I'm saying that the foundations, the bedrock, is still standing, and still strong.  I was not sure there, for a while.  And it was, and is, not guaranteed.  Had 45 won in 2020, for example, I do not believe we would have made it through another 4 years of 45.  I believe we would have descended all the way into fascism (we were well on our way, with babies in cages...  the damage that man did can never be undone, but we--our democracy, our constitution, our separation of powers, we, the people, VOTING, our free press, all of it--have SURVIVED.

So is today a "sad" and/or "sorrowful" day?  No, today is a beautiful and awesome triumph.  A healthy day for the rule of law.  Today is a happy day!

The state of our Rule of Law is strong: 45 has been indicated on federal charges!!!

BREAKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is still hope for America:  repeat:  there IS still hope for our dear country, the United States of America!  DONALD J. TRUMP HAS BEEN INDICTED ON FEDERAL CHARGES!  This is a beautiful day for the rule of law.  No citizen in America is either beneath, or above, the law.  THAT is one of the main things, if not THE main thing, that truly makes America great.

#finally  #RuleOfLaw  #ItAintOverTilTheRuleOfLawSings

Happy Indictment Day!

Popping on while eating breakfast, sans glasses (so please excuse any typos!), just before getting dressed to leave for work.  I just have to shout, and YES:  gleefully:

HAPPY INDICTMENT DAY, AMERICA!

It's a beautiful day, a good day, for our country when we uphold and affirm what truly makes us great:  that, when we are doing it (our constitution) right, we are all equal under the law.  We all should have equal rights.  We all should have due process.  And no person--including the President of the United States--is above the law.

Finally, 45 is facing consequences for his law-breaking actions.  Today's indictment is just going to cover a tiny fraction of all the laws he has broken.  He has also violated our constitution, broken international laws governing Crimes Against Humanity, and committed treason.  Today doesn't make him, finally, have to face any consequences for all of those actions.  But today, finally, makes him have to face consequences for some of his actions.

45 has never had to face consequences before.  His followers love that he is a bully and he gets away with things.  They think it makes him macho and tough.  When they see that 45 is going to have to face consequences for his actions, it may also make them a tad quieter, at least for a while, and it may start to show them that their Emperor has no clothes.  They stuck with him and liked him even more, the more xenophobic and hateful and violence-inciting, and law-breaking, he was/is.  All of that only made them like him more.  But seeing him, FINALLY, facing consequences for any of it?  Seeing him maybe sent into a time out by the adults in the room?  They won't like that.  But just like children who act out and have tantrums and need to be shown LIMITS, it is the healthiest thing for them.  And for our country.

So I say again:

HAPPY INDICTMENT DAY!

Our founders never intended this.

I'm eating breakfast ahead of work, and they just showed photos on the news of some of those who were gunned down in the school in Nashville yesterday.  One of the photos really got to me.  It was of a little girl.  Her life is over now.  She was just trying to go to school.  She should have had the right to be safe in school.  Aren't Americans supposed to have the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?"  Since when does the liberty part eclipse the life part?  And doesn't liberty include the liberty to go out in public without the very real possibility of being gunned down?  Why should any citizen have the ability to own a weapon of mass murder, a military style assault rifle, capable of mowing down hundreds of people in moments?  Our founders never, ever foresaw or intended that when they penned our awesome constitution.  You will not find any such "right" in that document.  But shouldn't that little girl have had the right to go to school without being gunned down?  Shouldn't we all have the right to go to church, synagogue, mosque, the grocery store, the mall, outdoor events, dance clubs, the list goes on and on and on, without fear and reality of being gunned down?

The vast majority of the American people are for a federal assault weapons ban.  Yet since more of our elected representatives are apparently in the pocket of the NRA than actually want to uphold their oath to represent us, we do not have one, nor does one seem to be on the horizon.  So the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is now infused with fear and grief, and drills for our nation's children in school on what to do if someone starts shooting.  What a perverse future, this present day is, of what our founders intended for us.

Red Tide

I'm so scared of Red Tide. And I ain't talking about what's washing up on some nearby beaches right now, here in Florida. I'm talking about Republicans or, as I call that party and most of the people who comprise it, repugs. I'm not into name calling but they deserve it. If the repug fits, get called it. They are repugnant, and not even worthy of the energy it would take to add in that last syllable, "nant", hence: repugs. Been calling them that for many years now and they just keep earning it anew. But I digress: they are taking over my state! And I'm scared, no joke.

When I moved to Florida 29 years ago, it was purple. There was a Democratic governor. I had to move here due to a physical challenge that I won't bore you with but the bottom line of which was/is that I have to live somewhere subtropical or tropical, period. That kind of narrows down one's options if one is an American and one loves one's home country and wants to stay in same. Couldn't go to California (where, as it happens, I was born, even though I'm a northeastern, mid-Atlantic girl to the core, and my parents were, too--they just happened to be in CA when they had me, but they moved back east when I was a tender little infant of 5 months old) because it's too arid for said sitch, and also the housing was way too expensive there for me at the time (and now). Hawaii seemed similarly impractical. But Florida? I could stay basically on the east coast, I could be near my beloved Atlantic, and it really doesn't get more humid than Florida, and I was all about the dew point at that time. So I set about the business of STUDYING everything I could (which was a LOT harder back then, pre-everyone-having-the-net: it was 1992, people, when I made the decision to move) about Florida. I went to the library (remember the library?). I wrote to Chambers of Commerce and had them send me stuff. I narrowed my city choices down to three, none of which were St. Pete, but, awesomely, the cosmos guided me here and, once I set foot in St. Pete (which was only ever supposed to be where I was staying on my reconnaissance mission in July of 1993, while I drove around to the three cities I was considering moving too--St. Pete was just supposed to be base camp for that, it wasn't on my radar at all), I fell in love instantly with this city. INSTANTLY.

I still looked at the other three contenders but, looking back, I think I actually knew right away: it was going to be St. Pete. And, luckily, St. Pete was pretty liberal, especially compared to some other areas of the state, so good: St. Pete. And I felt, as a girl from a solidly Blue state, and a solidly Blue set of parents, and a solidly and wildly, deeply Blue upbringing, comfortable with the fact that I was moving to the--gasp--south. Because, it's okay, I'm going to St. Pete. And look, the Governor is a Democrat. And... it's going to be okay. Well, that was before 2000. Which I can't even TALK about--2000, that is--to this day. I'm serious, no can do, still too traumatized, but if you know what I'm talking about simply by the 4 numerical digits "2000", then bless you and, if you know, you know. If you don't know, watch the first 15-ish minutes of "Fahrenheit 9/11" and call me in the morning. And, actually, if you have never watched Fahrenheit 9/11, you need to do so immediately, or right after you read the rest of this. I feel like that is when Florida started, no pun intended, going south on me.

Fast forward to now and we have a bunch of repugs MOVING HERE SPECIFICALLY DUE TO DESANTIS BEING GOVERNOR. It's a thing. A real, tangible thing. It started during the pandemic, with people who didn't want to wear masks or get vaccinated. And now we had a news story here the other day about a biiiiiiiig DeSantis rally, with lines of people waiting to see him, and one excited woman who was interviewed said, ecstatically, "I moved here for DeSantis! I moved here because I want to be in a free state!"

A free state? We're not free! We're not allowed to say "gay", let alone be anywhere on the LGBPTQIA+ spectrum. We're not allowed to have "climate change" in government documents, or teachers' unions, or to teach the actual history of the US of A. Girls and adult women aren't free to have agency over their own bodies and health care decisions. Companies, like cruise lines, aren't free to do what is best for their businesses by mandating vaccines to board their ships. I don't feel safe going to church, synagogue, the grocery store, events, etc., because people are walking around with semi-automatic weapons. This isn't a "free" state. You are not free to be yourself, to teach the truth, to form unions. DeSantis is also trying to take over the curricula of state colleges. So is this freedom or fascism?

This Red Tide is terrifying. I moved to a purple state which has, seemingly slowly at first, but now ever exponentially faster, become ruby, ruby red. When I sit in traffic on the way to and from work, or anywhere--bumper to bumper traffic, which *never* used to be the case, even just a few years ago here in St. Pete--I keep thinking of that woman on the news a few days ago: "I moved here for Governor DeSantis! I moved here to be in a free state!"

I guess one girl's "freedom" is another girl's "fascism". Potato, potato. This girl is scared. And now DeSantis is clearly running for President. This "freedom" could be coming soon, to every state of the union. Unless we stand up to it. Silence is not an option.

Fascism Is In The Air, Democracy Is In Our Hands

I watched the news this morning and was horrified by clips of 45 at CPAC.  The following statement isn't a news flash, as it was when I first started shouting it from the cyber rooftop back during the 2016 presidential primary season, but his particular combo platter of being a sociopath and being, frankly, an excellent con artist, is extremely, extremely dangerous.  He has zero hesitation and every intention and ability to harness hate and fear for his own ends.  He has zero hesitation to weaponize his followers to start a civil war, just to keep him out of jail and to get him back into power.  At which point, we would go from a democracy to a fascist country.

I don't think it is likely that he will get his party's nomination again. But either way--if he gets the nomination, or if he doesn't--he is going to weaponize his followers.  He's already started, if you listen to his words of last night.  He said "I'm your retribution".  Picture January 6th on a national scale.  45 is on the march again.  He's nothing without his followers, but he's got them.  He knows exactly how to press their racist, xenophobic, anti-Semitic, hate-triggered buttons.  He's an expert at Othering.

Look to history and just before Hitler came to power people didn't take him seriously.  We need to take 45 seriously.  Our only defense against him and the hate he harnesses and unleashes is our own power to vote, and our power of peaceful, creative, non-violent resistance, with our constitution as our foundation.  This is no time to sit anything out.  As a favorite quote of mine, by one William K. Wolfrum, says:

"The road to fascism is lined with people telling you to stop overreacting."

Imagining a Post-Fossil-Fuel World

It's an exquisitely beautiful Spring day here in St. Petersburg, as I sit here on my lunch break, working from home today, with all my windows open and a wonderful, warm, refreshing breeze (well, refreshing except for all the oak pollen infusing it and everything here, but I digress...) jazzing me up.  I can hear the not so far off, yet just far enough off, roar of the Indy cars as they practice for the St. Petersburg Grand Prix this weekend.  I've always been a passionate environmentalist and climate change activist, and vociferously anti-fossil fuel.  Yet I must cop to loving that fossil-fuel-induced sound, and getting such a rush from it somehow!

I dream of a world in which homes and businesses and cars are powered by renewable, clean energy sources like (and mainly) solar and wind.  Yet I think there should be an exception for Indy car sporting events, just a few times per year, so that future generations can feel this rush of adrenaline and excitement too, yet think to themselves "oh, so this is what gas-powered cars were like--wow, I'm glad we don't have that exhaust polluting our air, ruining our health, wrecking our ozone layer and causing climate change anymore.  This is fun and a cool throwback and nod to history and the combustible engine, but I'm glad that, when the race is over, we can drive home in our solar-powered cars, to our solar-powered homes, breathing clean, delicious and wonderful air always."

The Exquisite Dance

Just a gentle bit of love and musing for any and all of my friends who, like me, struggle with weight.

I've been struggling myself and the number on the scale has gone up 20 lbs in the past year, even though I've been alarmed and trying to have it NOT do that, please. So today I really had to have a talk with myself, and try to remember to infuse it with the love and gentleness I referenced above because it is so easy to do it in a critical, scolding tone in my mind. It's so easy to beat myself up for my weight going up, especially at this stage in my journey, as I know a lot--I've had a lot of experience. I know what to do. I know what works for me and what doesn't. Yet the fact is, I still turn to food for comfort, for soothing, to numb my feelings and stuff them far away where (though this is delusional) they can't hurt me, for so many things that I need to either find and employ other sources of (like comfort and soothing), or try not to do at all (like numbing out or stuffing feelings). And I do understand all this and often succeed at turning to other things: friends, nature, exercise, spirituality, pets. Yet, this past year in particular, or maybe not in particular, maybe just like always, I have turned to food to get me through some traumatic stuff, and some regular old stress and fear and whatnot. (That whatnot is a b*tch.)

Anyway, the cold, hard fact is, I'm 20 pounds heavier than I was last year at this time. Last year, I was just a few pounds over the top of my healthy range. Within striking distance. I was almost back in the zone. But now, as of today, I've gone from alarmed at the gaining to ALARMED, and no way, and I can't gain an ounce more, period.

I just can't afford to, healthwise. Nope, nein, negative, not today, not ever, NO.

Yet, it's fine to say that, but I said that last night after getting on the scale because I felt hungry and like the... not even full "smoothie" (it was just pineapple juice blended with bananas--it would require plain yogurt or something to even make smoothie status, it was more of a frappe or virgin colada) I had for dinner was not enough and that I needed protein. But I weighed myself to kind of talk myself out of it, because it was like 8 p.m. And my weight was alarming. Yet I ended up eating a big meal anyway, as I really was hungry and felt I really needed protein. But was protein all I ate? No. Let's just skip over the details and suffice it to say: I'm feeling out of control-ish re food.

So I took some time to muse about it all this morning, and to re-think about some things I've been thinking about, and to remind myself of some things, and I realized, yet again: food addiction is not like other addictions because you cannot go cold turkey. People with other addictions and people with no addictions do NOT understand this and what this is like, period. But we who have this do. And the thing about it is: you can't just do a black and white thing, you can't just go cold turkey, like I said. Since you have to eat, you HAVE to LEARN. Learn what? Learn, in exquisite detail and with exquisite nuance, exactly what you can and can't eat and when and in what circumstances and with what set of variables (because the choice that is right one day or at one meal maybe not be right another day or at another meal, depending what else you've eaten and what is going on and what setting you are in and a million other variables and constants).

So here is the MAIN thing I've learned, in all my years of following the diet that is best for me and learning that it's always still going to take a lot of intention and a lot of awareness and daily choices, multiple choices every day: no matter what, don't give up. DO NOT GIVE UP.

Yes, you'll struggle and no, it will never be a straight line. And it will never be: "Yay, I got down to a certain number on the scale, now I'm done." No. It's always going to take intention and choices and thoughtfulness and agility and gracefulness and graciousness and trial and error, knowledge and experience, successes and failures (both of which are valuable teachers--the person who wrote the diet I follow said that years ago: your failures aren't failures, they are teachers).

This morning, I had to tell myself: don't give up, obviously, that's not an option, and do get back to fundamentals. We're back to baby steps again, and that is humbling, yet okay. It's okay. Just get back to certain things that you know work for you. Sometimes, when you are struggling, all it takes is one or two seemingly little tweaks, little re-calibrations, to get you back on track!

For me, I had to remind myself this morning: don't have more than one grain-containing meal per day, if you can possibly help it. And maybe just try to go a tad easy on the portion/amount of starchy/grains in same. Maybe just add a *little* less oil/fat. You've got this.

So to all the other me's out there: don't give up. The thing with food addiction (and any addiction/all addiction, but again, food addiction is different, because you HAVE to eat every day and thus you HAVE to learn an exquisite amount of stuff in order to be in "recovery", unlike like other types of addiction, wherein you can simply--though of course I know it isn't "simple"--make one choice to go cold turkey, whereas we can't, we have to basically become experts in biochemistry, our OWN personal biochemistry, what *exactly* keeps us in biochemical balance and what sets off cravings, etc.) is that we food addicts, in order to get into and stay in recovery, in "food sobriety", have to do an exquisite, intricate dance with the substance of our addiction every single day, multiple times per day.

So my bit of love and gentleness for myself as well as for others today is: don't give up when you are struggling, remember to learn from your "failures" as well as your successes, and just get back to Square One, to fundamentals that you know work for you, when you are struggling. For me, since I do consistently fab at not eating the foods I know are really not my friends, what I have to get back to are things like: only one grain-containing meal per day, go easy on portions, go easy on adding oils and other fats. Make one choice at a time, always asking myself: is this a choice that is being kind to myself in the long haul and in the big picture?

One day at a time, one choice at a time.

Stupidism: a new word I just made up.

I've made up a new word:  stupidism.  You know how there are truisms?  Well, says I, there are thus also stupidisms:  sayings that are, not to put too fine a point on it, clearly STUPID.  Example?  "People don't kill people, guns kill people."  That is the quintessence of a stupidism.  All countries have people.  Yet only one country has constant mass murders/massacres.  Only ONE country doesn't ban military-style assault weapons from civilian hands.  That's the country with all the slaughters of innocent people.  So it's the GUNS that are doing all the killing.

All countries have a similar number of violently insane people.  Yet only one has assault weapons, military-style assault GUNS, in those people's hands.  Thus the example I gave of a stupidism is, in fact, a stupidism and is the very one that made me come up with that word for it in the first place.  You're welcome.

Help Bend the Arc

In my favorite speech ever, one of my few, true heroes, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said of the more just, equitable America he envisioned, "I may not get there with you..." Well, we're still not there, but we have to keep bending the arc. We are his legacy. We are the children he referenced in my personal favorite speech. I was one, going on two, at the time. And we have to keep the ideals Dr. King, Jr. stood for alive, employing creative non-violent action and resistance to bring about a more just, equitable America and world. We must bend the arc until the ideals Dr. King stood so clearly, courageously, eloquently and fiercely lovingly for meet reality.

Keep the candle of hope lit, and be brave, children.

RANT about Repugs

 Rant ON:

I find it totally disgusting that McCarthy, in his acceptance speech, said the repugs are going to make America a great place for children. Why would anyone find that disgusting? Because, for my entire adult life, since 1980, the Republicans have put everything they have into doing the exact opposite of that.

If repugs really cared about children at all, there would be:

Universal, single-payer health care
Universal, federally-mandated paid maternity and paternity leave
Paid pre-K care for children age 0 to kindergarten age
Contraception covered at 100%
Sane federal gun laws, including a total federal BAN ON ASSAULT WEAPONS
Prioritize fully funding our public schools, and no, that does NOT include "charter schools".
A fair and equitable tax system in which EVERYONE, including the rich, PAY THEIR TAXES.

But no, that is not what repugs want or care about. Children? Making America a good place for children? That is literally the last thing on their tiny, self-centered, short-sighted, greedy little beady, non-reasonable facsimile of minds!

Here's what repugs care about, PERIOD, and this has, again, been true since at least 1980:

1. NOT paying taxes. These POS, unpatriotic bleeps don't want to pay taxes, period.

2. Being xenophobic.

3. Maintaining the patriarchy.

So, McCarthy, shut up immediately about making America a great place for children. Your party has made America a hellscape for children. And for the rest of us. I wish you would build a big, beautiful wall around yourselves, preferably out of country in some tax haven, and leave America to those of us who want to build on what is truly great about it and make it a truly great place for children.

Oy Vey

What the? Imagine if this basket of deplorables had been in charge (read: in chaos) a two years ago tomorrow. Think about it.

You would think I would be relishing the Republican Party imploding right now, unable to elect a Speaker of the House, seeing as how I DETEST said party and most of those who comprise it, but, as a patriotic American who wants my country to be healthy--or at least functional--this is NOT good.  At all.  Yes, it is delectable that the complicit treasonous traitor known as McCarthy is not getting the power reward he expected for his betrayal of our constitution and people, but any satisfaction I would be feeling from that is totally eclipsed by these despicables paralyzing our country.

Just thank goodness (and all of us who VOTED in 2020) that their sociopathic leader (45) didn't win a second term.  The ripple effects of all he unleashed are horrendous enough without him still at the helm.  At least there have been some very healthy signs of hope for recovery for our country recently.  But this?  This spectacle going on as we speak in the House of Representatives?  This is totally the inmates taking over the asylum.  Only they can't even do that--they can't even effectuate the takeover off the asylum.  So how are they going to run things, IF they ever elect a Speaker?

Short version of my above post:  oy vey.