Random Bullets of a Monday

Just back from a lunch with some... friends. The relationship is in an odd place where you kind of want to meet them 'for old times sake' but the 'old times' really weren't that great. And then the old gang kind of fell apart and new relationships creep into a stranger place. So I found myself getting back to my car and thinking 'thank god that's over.' That's just sad. And very true. It's a once a year lunch, so not onerous, just... this was uncomfortable for me.

War between Israel and Hamas, with a couple of million Palestinians taking the brunt of the retribution. I think a lot of people are torn, knowing that the Gaza situation is horrific, accepting that Hamas' actions are horrible, that Israel's restrictions on Gaza and the West Back are terrible - getting things/people in/out of Gaza were made ever more difficult, I can see both sides. Netanyahu is an ass; terrorism is a last resort kind of response. No good guys, lots of bad guys, lots of civilians on both sides becoming ever more hostage to the extremists.

The Ukraine war worries me, as the US seems to be at best luke-warm on the project. The Project being, let me make clear, supporting Ukraine against Russian aggression. I hate that support for Ukraine is a political football between factions here in the US. I hate that the Republicans are increasingly promoting an isolationist policy that plays Putin's game. All for show, because they want power and that's apparently all they care about, and are willing to do anything to get/keep it.

Part of this, I hope, is my body's reaction to my four vaccines yesterday. I'm achy and head achy, grumpy and lack interest/focus in just about everything. I felt good this morning, working in the garage and getting stuff resorted and rearranged. Now, with a good lunch (fish tacos) in me, all I want to do is curl up with a book and some dogs and hide from everybody and everything. Again, sad. I think I shall follow my body signals, and get warm, comfy and settled in. With the hope that after a few hours of that, interest in something will kick my ass up and doing.

Well, That was Interesting...

 Yes, indeedy. McCarthy losing a vote of confidence. Led by the All-Time-Loser, Matt Gaetz. Wow. Just goes to show what Lenin said was right: a small number can have an outsized effect. McCarthy gave them power, and he caved to them all along. Until he did the right thing, passed a continuing resolution with the support of Democrats - and against the mini-mob. The rest of the GOP has also shown their colors - they might have supported him as Speaker, but they too are so afraid of their extreme wing that they do nothing else. American politics are so f-d up.

The gag order on Trump is lovely, but of course he doubles down. And runs away from his lawyers in NY to go pout and spout from Mar-a-Lago. The question now is: when (not if) he spouts his vile lies from there, will a NY judge slap him down? And how? Personally, were I that judge, I'd give him a meaningful fine (say $5 million) the first time. Double it the second, and nail him to the wall for contempt on the third.  If Trump really has the cash to pay $15 million in fines for the first two, and continues?  Make it very clear that the next one will be heavily fined and incur even more limits on his bile. Like $50 million plus jail time. I hesitate with the jail thing, because Don would relish that as campaign fodder. 

Don's request for further delay in the rest of the cases should be denied out of hand, by all judges. Or conditional: only if he retires from campaigning (for anyone) and agrees to leave politics altogether. He's just too nuts to continue to be a player of any type. The DOJ did it with Agnew; do it with the far more toxic Trump!

Would that stop the extremists? O no, I doubt it. They are loving their tastes of power; only being turned out of office by their constituents would defang them; they'll then go on the speaking tours and rile up others. How do we get the slime of the troll cohort to crawl back under their slime and stay there?

I'm very worried that US support for Ukraine will be cut off; Putin's treasury may be big, but his military and political classes are not ignorant of what is going on in the war. Can he expand that further? He'll try, no doubt, and he loves waving his nuclear toys about. In a way, I see that as fair: Truman did that when we had the atomic weapons, to get Stalin to participate in the war against the Japanese. I can only hope that somewhere in the Putin sphere there are military commanders with the foresight and courage to stop him. Given Vlad's record dealing with opposition, they are going to have to be quite brave and put their lives on the line. 

I'm really hoping that Zelensky will have the will and courage to call elections, and that he can win. And that Putin and Trump can stay the hell out of Ukrainian politics!