But I have an idea, and maybe it will help me get into the spirit, of which i am lagging badly for whatever reason.
They haven't given me their christmas lists. I don't know what to get them.

But as I said I have an idea. I will give FOR them.

for my oldest son, a donation to NORML (he's in CA so he's okay, but I'm in NC and want him to visit)
for my DIL, who called me raging over TX, planned parenthood and/or NARAL
for my 14-year-old granddaughter, Human Rights Campaign
for my middle son, he's a toughie who won't cop to caring about much at all, but he has a JD degree, so SPLC
for my youngest son, ASPCA or another animal care organization

I will have to be satisfied with these gifts. I do know what to get for my grandsons and my son's fiancee has kindly provided a wish list so she's covered.

there. i'm almost done christmas shopping. what do you think?

So the parents of a juvenile mass murderer will be charged and I'm good with that. They must be huge fans of Madison Cawthorn (https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/madison-cawthorn-trump-boys-monsters-b1941915.html). I've read elsewhere that the mother is a trump worshipper. They bought their son a gun. They knew he was a disaster waiting to happen. They took him shopping and bought him the gun. I hope they're convicted.

What tends to piss me off and frustrate me no end are when parents leave loaded weapons where their young children can get them and someone ends up injured or dead. These parents need to be prosecuted.

These incidents are not accidents, they are the direct result of depraved indifference, criminal negligence, child abuse, etc. They do not seem to stop happening. Maybe, just maybe, if the people truly responsible for these tragedies faced consequences, they'd stop or at least happen less often. Some people who will die with the status quo, would live.

can Rittenhouse be prosecuted federally? is there any chance that will happen?

Can the prosecution have the trial nulled somehow because of the judge and his clear bias? obviously if rittenhouse had been (rightfully) convicted he could appeal and appeal and appeal, but is there in fact no hope of that at all?

my heart aches for the families of the victims and i try not to be fearful because of the message sent by the verdict. then today i read he's being promoted for a congressional medal. could it be any clearer that the GOP is the party of white supremacy?

MedCram has also recently posted this long video regarding "COVID Vaccine Myths, Questions, and Rumors with Rhonda Patrick and Roger Seheult" - I watched the whole thing but know it's hard to commit over 2 hours to a video.

Twenty years on. This anniversary is never fun, but it feels like a milestone I did not, at the time, think I would ever see. At the time, every minute passing by was a torture as I grappled with an intolerable fact that every cell and every thought and emotion rejected.

I wondered how to live if Bekah didn't. Twenty years on, I think I've learned and managed about as well as possible given her persistent absence. Still miss her, always will. Still feel her near me and take comfort in little signs I fancy she sends me.

"Sad soul, take comfort, nor forget
That sunrise never failed us yet" - Celia Thaxter

Early on I scolded the sun for daring to rise if Bekah wasn't alive. Night after sleepless night I watched it do it anyway. I gazed at the rising sun, begging it to bring me back my girl. Just let me see her ghost. Her face. Her smile. To this day I fall out longing for a visit from her as I dream. It happens sometimes. She's different ages in these dreams. Sometimes I know she's dead, other times I don't until I wake up.

The sun did persist in rising, day in, day out, for twenty years now. It has done so again today. It feels like a milestone I must memorialize, even if I don't know how. I want to write a poem but the words elude me. I want to make a painting but my hand is shaky and I don't think I'll like what results. So here we are. Twenty years.

[link:https://www.lapdonline.org/july_2001/news_view/22911|]

his mother: "I believe a lengthy sentence will not serve Derek well."

it will serve justice. I started watching the sentencing as it was ongoing so it may already be known, but just wanted to comment on this. Apparently his mother never watched the video of George Floyd's murder.

I am entirely unswayed by this woman. I did watch the video, in the context of the trial. It took me that long to watch it because I knew it was horrific.

shoulda been a 1st degree conviction imo. he had almost 10 minutes to decide to murder George Floyd.

ETA now his lawyer. someone i hold in contempt and will probably not listen to today.

ETA 22 1/2 years.

I still read DU and WP and other sources. But this morning I thought I'll click on MSNBC.com and watch some shows I actually miss a bit (Chris Hayes, Nicolle Wallace, Brian Williams primarily).

but i was running around a little while it was on. anyhow.

So on the 11th Hour, discussing the record steal from congress members by trump's DOJ, one of the pundits, a woman who I cannot name, said, "But this is not trump's DOJ, this is Biden's DOJ."

BULLSHIT. in virtually every institution of government, trumpsters are still making life hell for Americans, flaunting the rule of law, abusing their power, and they are not all gone. Not by a long shot. Who's running the post office for instance? ICE is still running amok.

Joe Biden cannot turn around the damage in 3 months or 4 years or 8 years. I've said since 2017 that it will be generations. I do not appreciate pundits who insist on boiling it down to "now" and "then" as if "then" is not now and for years and years to come, infecting both now and the future.

FFS it pisses me off. It's not simple, and these people come on with their powerful voices and try to make it simple. Don't do that. Just tell the fucking truth.

/rant off

I know justice was denied in my daughter's case, but at least her killer went away for a little while. I have friends who never learned who killed their child and others who know who killed their child but the police never got enough evidence to charge. I was in the courtroom when a jury hung for the person who killed my friend's child. the police never took him back to trial.

George is still dead, but I feel sure that his family feels much better today than they did yesterday. I hope so.