Atticus
Atticus's JournalCould we just stop for a second and wrap our minds around this fact?
Numerous---too many to bother naming---Republican political figures now openly support Russia, one of our most cruel international adversaries, as its despicable leader, Putin, orders his troops to annihilate the population of Ukraine. Some have even agreed with the ridiculous Russian propaganda that the butchery filmed in Bucha was a hoax.
AND, --- these people are STILL apparently members in good standing of the "Grand Old Party"!
Has their nominal "leader" even criticized these out-and-out traitors from his perch at Mar-A-Lago?
Have McConnell or McCarthy even wagged a finger at these Putin lovers?
Where are all the "good" Republicans some keep mentioning? Their silence is deafening!
Today's "WHETHER report"----
There is really no debate about WHETHER Hitler was guilty of genocide, but some today think much investigation needs to take place before we even consider WHETHER Putin is guilty of that crime.
Few ever question WHETHER a person who is in complete charge of a military unit, a police force, a church or even a retail store is responsible for the failures or outrageous behavior of those under his authority, but lot of people want to engage in lengthy stream-of-consciousness debates about WHETHER Trump is responsible for virtually anything that happened while he was pussy-grabber in chief.
And, while I have never heard anyone question WHETHER or not psychopathic criminals should be locked up, Republicans won't dare begin a discussion about WHETHER Trump should die in a small barred room without hair dye, makeup or Big Macs and Diet Coke.
That concludes this evening's WHETHER report. As usual, the long range forecast is unsettled.
The Republican Party has discovered a cure for cancer! ( satire, folks, satire! )
"At a blockbuster press event this morning, the usually stolid Mitch McConnell was ecstatic as he announced that his party's panel of experts, after literally days of doing their own research on the internet, had solved the "supposed cancer problem".
'Just IGNORE IT!' McConnell gleefully chortled. 'This is not some new hare-brained theory! This method is a tried-and-true time-tested approach to eradicating problems that liberals just can't stop throwing money at! IGNORE CANCER! It's that simple!'
To those "woke" agitators who doubt this method will work, I say 'It has worked to get rid of homosexuality, racism, domestic terrorism and hunger in America. WHY NOT CANCER?' "
President Biden has received several "3:00 a.m. phone calls" and in my opinion has "answered the
bell" very appropriately each time.
Trump was a loud tacky show horse who would have not had to wake up for the call; he'd have been busy tweeting that the crisis was the Democrats' fault.
Joe Biden is a work horse who actually gets tired and needs to sleep, not tweet, each night.
Any comparisons of the two are disingenuous twaddle.
"The moving finger writes;
and, having writ, Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it."
----from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.
I am especially appreciative of this verse as the transient wonders of spring again amaze with their splendor and then are gone as "life moves on".
As magnolias, forsythias and red buckeyes brighten our yard, spring beauties dot the meadow and the Dutchman's breeches are beginning to decorate the floor of our woods. Amid all this I most look forward to the trout lillies.
In dense shade, their foliage first pierces the leaf litter with sharp leaves of dull green splashed with a unique brownish purple. Once these camouflage-like leaves are up and spread, each plant sends up just one bloom---a slender stalk topped with a half inch long pendant lilly-like white flower with soft yellow stamens at the center. They literally bloom and are gone for another year within a week.
In my 73 year old mind, trout lillies not only epitomize spring, they caution us not to take today's blessings for granted. Life is being "writ" by that "moving finger" and it WILL "move on".
Carpe diem, y'all.
Sorry, Willie. Best I can do:
Ain't It Funny How SLIME Slips Away
Well, hello there, Mr. Trump!
My, it's been a long long time!
How are you doin'?
I suppose you think you're doin' fine
Four long years---wow!
But, it seems now
That you're finally going away.
Ain't it funny
How slime slips away?
As some refer to 2024 as Trump's "Second Coming", I submit that Yeats was a prescient genius.
"Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"
A true tale that explains my disdain for those whose opinions---and party---depends on
who won the last election or is "favored" to win the next:
My Dad was a union member and Democratic precinct Committeeman. He sometimes took me along to gatherings and picnics where he "pressed the flesh" and passed out campaign bumper stickers and buttons.
At one picnic, after passing out many bumper stickers to anyone who asked for one, a man approached, held out his hand and asked for one. Instead of handing him a sticker, Dad hesitated a second and then said "Sure, Stan. Where are you parked? I'll put it on your bumper for you."
The man said no, he'd just take a sticker. Dad closed his bag of stickers and buttons, looked the guy straight in the eye, grinned from ear to ear and responded "Oops! I guess we're all out" and walked away.
I knew something was "off", but waited till we were well away from the guy before asking why he wouldn't give that man a bumper sticker.
"Because," Dad explained, "that guy never puts a sticker on his car unti the morning after the election! He picks up one from each party and supports the winner after he's won. Best to keep your distance from such men and NEVER trust them."
My Dad's disgust with such folks lives on in me.
Just a general comment---no citations, footnotes or quotes. Take it or leave it.
I believe it to be true that what causes that constant twinge in our stomachs is the knowledge that if ANY OF US had done what Trump, his offspring and several dozen of his aiders and abetters have, in our opinion, OBVIOUSLY done, we'd have been "cuffed and stuffed" months ago and would now be dressed like everyone else and eating off trays.
You can say that's a very unsophisticated way to stack things up, but if you deny that that emotional opinion will not impact our turnout you are, in my opinion, sadly mistaken. Seeing and hearing these criminals giving interviews and polluting social media with their lies on a near daily basis is tossing cold water onto the "fire in the belly" that Democrats are trying to stoke for the midterms.
That's my opinion and it is worth what it cost you.
I think maybe we have developed something like "outrage fatigue" with respect to
Republican political figures. Any one of them could be a poster boy or girl for outrageous, but there are so damn many of them that it's hard not to react to each in turn with "whatever". I ask that you actually think about each of the following and realize "this person IS the GOP" today.
Taylor-Greene
Gaetz
Gosar
Boebert
Cawthorn
Paul
Graham
Cotton
Nunes
Blackburn
Trump
Giuliani
Thomas ( Clarence AND Ginni )
Jordan
Gohmert
McConnell
McCarthy
Yeah, I know--- I've left out at least dozens who fit this list, but I have probably already spiked too many blood pressures.
Just--- remember how bad The Dark Side is, ok?
