Yesterday, I managed to go to work and even got some stuff done. Drove home in a haze, wary of surprises. Once I got my stuff settled, I put in the effort to make a quick grocery-store visit, and came up with precut ingredients and a couple of cans of soup that resulted in vaguely-Cajun stew: a little ground beef, a little mild sausage, onion, bell peppers and celery, fresh mushrooms, Amy's French Country Vegetable Soup. Brown, drain, saute, mix, simmer.
It was probably more effort than I should have put in, and I sat a spell before cleaning up the kitchen after dinner. I slept heavily, in two unbroken four-hour stretches, more than I have slept at a time since the bronchitis started.
Meanwhile, the Federal government is busy doing terrible things, while the President talks about his plans to do even worse. The Executive Branch is in the hands of crooks, cranks, possible spies and religious extremists; the Legislative Branch is divided, and complicit when they are not ineffectual; and the Federal Judiciary -- ah, the Judicial Branch: divided in the lower courts, deeply compromised at the very top. Republic is lurching into Empire, and an attenuated, incompetent, vicious empire at that. I'm not afraid for my country any more, I'm ashamed of it: as voters, we failed. As constituents, we failed. I failed. I should have done more to cheer on representative government and spent less time sneering at its shortcomings. Recovery looks unlikely and America, that dear shining city on a hill, is now just one more rat-bag polity getting looted by its own elites. With any luck, it will be a long slow ride down; if the dice turn up bad, it could be a short, brutal fall. Either way, the boys at the top will leave the nation sick, poor and dirty, and it'll stay that way for a long time.
Yeah, I might not be in a real good mood.
Update
5 months ago
8 comments:
The leader of the Regime has declared numerous nations to be "shithole countries". We may very well now be the biggest, richest shithole country of them all. Doesn't feel good to be number one in the number two category.
I share your mood. At my age I'll not have to live thru much of the coming crap, but I certainly fear for my grandchilden and greatgrandchildren. Sad, indeed.
It's not so much Sulla I worry about, but those who come after. I suspect that the deliberate removal of Constitutional limits will make it likely that ambitious demagogues from both parties will continue to use and abuse the office to enrich themselves while punishing the adherents of the previous administration. And this in turn will spur the next partisan demagogue to do likewise when they come into power.
Sadly, this is nothing new.
I keep hoping that your grocery visits result in more than 1 can of soup, etc. If you buy a little more in bulk, life will simpler and more productive. (Also, don't let the politics depress you. Ignore it.)
But why, Bob? I did once-a-week grocery shopping during the pandemic and it's a PITA. I live within walking distance of one grocer, an easy bike ride of two more (one of which is on the bus line, too), and at least six more are less than ten minutes away by car. Depending on which site I'm working at, one or the other of the foodie/commercial organic grocers is on my way to and from work.
I keep about a month of food on the shelf, long-storage stuff, pasta, rice, dried beans, canned food and vegetables. Old stock gets used up and new stock, bought by ones and twos, gets rotated in. Feeding two adults, the amount of fresh vegetables I can keep in stock and use up before it goes bad is limited, and I am much better off buying what I need for a day or two.
I would be happy to ignore politics, but politics refuses to ignore me. As an elderly woman on Social Security -- not my sole income right now, but a valuable supplement that's helping me dig out of debt -- I have to be keenly aware of economic meddling and threats to Social Security and the Medicare I will will be relying on sooner rather than later. As someone employed in what's left of local media, I have to be aware of hostility from Federal, state and local government to my employer -- and to the economic forces (primarily eroding ad dollars spent on traditional media) that drive round after round of job cuts and downsizing. And that's just the easy, big-picture stuff.
I was planning to retire if Kamala Harris won. I thought there was a good chance we'd see some kind of insurance reform, and the cost of even supplemental insurance to cover what Medicare won't is the primary reason I haven't quit my job. I thought we'd see continued economic stability for four to eight years, which would carry me well into my final years. Instead, we've got voodoo government by incompetent ideologues and grifters, heedless of the long-term damage they are doing. Ignoring it is like ignoring a fire in your house: it's not going away by itself.
Tried to come up with a pithy comment, but couldn't. Unfortunately, you're right about it all and I'm a little further into it than you are. Courage, m'lady.
OK, Roberta, I see your day-to-day shopping point, and you've convinced me you're doing it right. Good discussion. i still disagree on your politics "awareness". Nothing you can do will change anything and it just makes you miserable. Ignore the bastards and life will be better. (When I was in the Navy, our thoughts were - just tell me who to shoot and don't bother me with the palaver.)
Shop however you like -- but disengaging from politics is consenting to letting crooks, fools, religious extremists and whackjobs run your life. Sooner or later, that's the sort of thing that does lead to shooting, and I'd just as soon not be on either end of that process.
Roberts Rules of Order tells us that in a debating and voting polity, silence is consent, and I most certainly do *not* consent to what Mr. Trump's administration is up to. Say what you will about Mr. Biden, you could count on a challenge in Congress or in court to his more controversial ideas, and you could be confident his Executive Branch would play by the rules and not ignore the courts or the law. The present guy, not so much, over and over and over. It needs to be pushed back against, and pushed back good and hard -- because whatever we let a President get away with, we'll get more of. We can't count on the other voters or the other Branches to do our work for us, especially if we don't keep prodding them like the reluctant oxen they are.
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