Author Archives: jameskoehneke

Samuel Alito is the Worst Writer in America

Sorry, my friends, for flooding the zone- but it’s Alito-Time again.

Samuel Alito: America’s Worst Writer


How we treat other people is a measure of our progress as a society. We all know that.

It’s not really complicated.

Samuel Alito is a pretty bad writer. But I now believe he is the worst.

I’m just going to go ahead and say it.

Samuel Alito is the worst writer in America.

He takes the title from former champions like Ed Meese and William Bennett.

These are the leftover bigots of the era of Ronald Reagan, prurient purveyors of platitudes.

For these pontiffs, everything is wrong wrong wrong right from the start.

Anywho.

Here’s the good news. What follows is one of the most beautiful expressions of human concern and fairness I’ve ever heard. At least so far today.

The article states that “one potential juror said that while homosexuality is a sin, “you still have to love those people” and “you don’t have a right to judge them. Therefore, I think I could be a fair juror.”

Feel free to read that magnificent magnanimous statement again, if you wish. I agree, it’s so good.

Go ahead. I’ll wait.

Good.

See, Samuel Alito? It’s called not being a bigot!

It’s not easy, but it can be done.

Alito’s dissent, not worth considering. Unfortunately we have to .


Alto starts the same as before, in the hideous Dobbs Decision (which stripped human rights from the entire population) with the idea that rulings with which Alito disagrees are “patently false and dangerous.”

The word “patently” means “clearly, without doubt.”

The previous case- Roe- was also “egregious” right from the start. (Even if Judge Alito saw no real problem with it during the confirmation hearing for his nomination to the Court.)

In other words I’m right/ you’re wrong/ we’re done here.

So in the language of his opening thesis, the judge has conflated subjectivity with objectivity. Two different operations.

The judge feels the danger! He senses a wrong! He’s worried, perhaps a little scared. Spooked. He wants to defend someone from something.

It’s the old Slippery Slope again, with the vertigo. I wish I’d worn better shoes to Court today, he’s thinking.

Perhaps it’s a slight hangover.

He demonstrates an altruistic impulse, in an upside-down kind of backwards way. He’s in a mist, lost in a kind of a yucky gray fog of concern, that someone might be excluded from a jury just because they hold weird, inhumane beliefs with violent overtones.

He may benefit from a session of comedian/writer Dana Gould’s “You Say This/I Feel That” therapy. Bring a box of tissues. Clarence will mediate.

Ok.

After the opening slam, we get the ridiculous dunk, that “society is not heeding the admonition” of the Court.

Well, that’s very frustrating for you, Samuel Alito. Bad Society! Devil worshippers, from whom religious believers must “hide” their beliefs!

And yet the dominant culture is what Alito is concerned about, and I tell you that, from here on the ground, Judge, the dominant culture is not hiding the beliefs. (See the prurient purveyors of platitudes, above.)

“In this case, the court below reasoned that a person who still holds traditional religious views on questions of sexual morality is presumptively unfit to serve on a jury in a case involving a party who is a lesbian. That holding exemplifies the danger that I anticipated in Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U. S. 644 (2015), namely, that Americans who do not hide their adherence to traditional religious beliefs about homo- sexual conduct will be “labeled as bigots and treated as such” by the government. Id., at 741 (dissenting opinion). The opinion of the Court in that case made it clear that the decision should not be used in that way, but I am afraid that this admonition is not being heeded by our society.”
-Alito

It’s hard to be ignored, to not be listened to, is it not? -to have one’s admonitions be unheeded.

It’s like the old spiritual the justices sing around the Walmart lot of an evening outside the trailer:

“Will our admonitions
be unheeded
by and by Lord
by and by

there’s a finer
ad-mo-nition
in the sky Lord
in the sky”

Tissue, judge?

Beneath the concern is the impatience. The rage. It is taking far too long to establish the just society for the Few. How long, Lord?

https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article285747461.html

***

https://youtu.be/Psa2ir_j9m4?si=nWFYOqMTuJ4JjXbN

***

The value of your vote to the fate of the country just skyrocketed.

Votes matter. We have enough information to change everything in November.

We can do what the Supreme Court refuses to do. We don’t need them.

Hear ye.

Supreme Court just did a “Comey” before the election.

Maybe he does have non-existent absolute Presidential immunity.

By “non-existent” I mean criminal immunity that isn’t in the Constitution of the United States anywhere textually, or in the nation’s political history, or of any long-standing tradition, or anywhere in the minds of the framers or the intent as demonstrated in the ratification process of the constitution nor from any legal precedent whatsoever.

Those were the lofty guidelines the Court set forth last time.

But maybe. Maybe. Maybe there’s something there: perhaps a touch of monarchy the framers overlooked. Perhaps they were missing old King George the Third, recently deposed. Maybe a few conflicts of interest, dark money, foreign interference, extortion are in the constitutional scheme after all.

His own lawyers did not believe there was any such thing as absolute Presidential immunity when they freaked out in the days before Jan 6 2020 in the White House meetings when it was obvious to them that they were about to embark on criminality, considering seizing voting machines and declaring martial law and intimidating poll workers and interrupting the mails and threatening state election officials and otherwise abusing the power of the presidency.

(This is around the time Ginny Thomas texted Mark Meadows, “Do not concede,” she wrote. “It takes time for the army who is gathering for his back.”)

He didn’t have it then, absolute immunity, at the Oval meetings with the conspirators. Not one person believed he had absolute immunity in Dec 2020, when it all went down. And those were his friends. The fellow crimesters. The White House counsel. Even the promoters of the scheme to overturn the certified election knew the ice was thin thin thin, legally.

No, what the conspirators- including members of Congress- asked him for was pardons, including accepting an imputation of guilt for criminal acts.

They hoped he would prevail, remain in power and grant everyone a pardon and punish the liberals and throw THEM in prison. The people he robbed and maligned and targeted for violence every time he spoke.

And of course we all saw his legal counsel defend him at the J6 Impeachment, claiming he had zero immunity and should be held accountable in court for his crimes! No such thing as immunity back then.

But this is the Supreme Court. Maybe they just forgot to grant George Washington absolute criminal immunity and why have two other branches of power anyway?

We are going to go back to the polls in November and we will be heard and understood. Loud and clear.

The Enemy Is In The House

***

The Enemy is In the House

A historic day in Ohio history.

Are they clueless, or collaborators?

The congressman with an office in my home town of Norwalk, Ohio is acting as a Russian asset of Vladimir Putin.

That’s right.

The congressman with an office in my home town of Norwalk, Ohio is effectively acting as a Russian asset for Vladimir Putin, a revelation made public with the confession of the Republicans’ source of information for their impeachment effort.

The Republican impeachment of Biden appears at this time to be a classic Russian disinformation operation with at least 147 accessories in Congress.

Though Trump is a private citizen, he leads the national Republican Party and has forged an alliance with Putin, so in effect Putin controls a significant portion of Congress, when critical funding for Ukraine has been blocked by Republicans.

Jordan has effectively shielded Trump from attacks as the chair of the powerful House Judiciary Committee, and has amplified Putin’s disinformation since the first controversies in 2016.

The confession of the informant comes a mere five days after the earthshaking political assassination of Russian dissident Navolny.

The death of Navolny seems coincident with Trump’s recent brazen announcement of condemnation of NATO, during a critical month of the war in Ukraine, giving a green light for Putin to act.

This dovetails with the recent viral showcasing of a humiliating propaganda exercise by Putin, of the very American weakness of Tucker Carlson, who was filmed pushing an empty shopping cart around an automated shopping center- not another soul in sight- and crowing about the wonders of modern Russia.

Journalist Joan Walsh pointed out Putin’s symbolic castration of Carlson, sent out seemingly alone on such an absurd, awkward adventure to basically nowhere in Moscow.

While it is possible Republicans like Rep Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) are mere accessories of the dictator, opportunists with their own misguided intentions, this follows an unvarying pattern of the attacks on Biden since 2019, all based on fake foreign intelligence with origins in the politics of war-torn Ukraine.

At the very least, Republicans have been publicizing unfiltered information from prestigious and powerful seats in Congress, lending credence to false allegations from Russian operatives in order to undermine the policies and the political infrastructure of the United States.

One can say definitively now that private citizen Trump has directed members of Congress in the disinformation campaign; Trump has assumed total party control and so leads a concerted effort to further amplify falsehoods against the President of the United States, some from sources with ties to Russian intelligence.

Trump has repeatedly proclaimed his willingness to further empower the Russian dictator, attempting to advance Putin’s prestige at every opportunity, with his personal political party in lockstep behind him.

Trump’s allegiance to Putin was made public in an appearance with Putin in Helsinki in 2018, when, then-President Trump, responding to questions from a US journalist, discredited the US intelligence on Russia, with Putin standing smiling just a few feet away.

A brief synopsis:

Trump publicly requested Putin’s interference in the 2016 election.

President Obama in 2016 imposed sanctions on Russia for election interference, without disclosing data that would tilt the election and cause a possible blow-back from Republicans. (You’re welcome, Republicans!)

The Russian Embassy in San Francisco was closed as part of the Obama sanctions. We had seen continuous smoke rise from the chimney of the embassy, and we surmised papers were being burned.

Congressional Republicans famously met with Putin in 2018 on the 4th of July in Moscow.

Trump’s NSA nominee Gen Flynn also made overtures to Russia, after acting as an agent for the repressive prime minister of Turkey, a powerful Putin ally. A federal judge found that Flynn was acting against the interests of the United States when Flynn lied to the FBI concerning contacts with Russia.

The NRA – an arm of GOP fundraising-was a conduit for money laundering and was infiltrated by Russian operative Maria Butina, who was active in the US in 2015 and onward, outsourcing Republicans on Putin’s behalf. She has since returned to Russia.

Trump’s campaign provided election data covertly in 2016 to Russian intelligence, campaign manager Paul Manafort, through Konstantin Kalimnik with links to Russian intelligence and so to Putin himself.

Trump’s top advisor was formerly employed in Ukraine to do political work that benefited Putin.

The effort by Jordan, on behalf of Donald Trump to cover for Putin, extends back to the first impeachment of Donald Trump- when Trump’s henchmen concocted a false story about Ukraine scandals involving the current president’s son.

The case for impeachment of President Biden, based on false allegations of bribery led by the House Republicans including Jim Jordan, was a Russian disinformation operation, according to papers made public yesterday, describing the arrest of the main informant who confessed to Federal officials.

It seems obvious that Putin may calculate his spring offensive with the consent of Republicans in Congress at the bidding of his main asset, Donald Trump. Every relationship of private citizen Trump is known to be transactional, quid pro quo.

Quid pro quo. Fait accompli. Pick your language.

Putin/Trump ’24

***

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/395719-gop-senators-visited-moscow-on-july-4/

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/01/us/russian-consulate-san-francisco-burning.html

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/29/1196572785/paul-whelan-us-citizen-russia-prison-new-video

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/21/politics/fbi-informant-biden-impeachment-what-matters/index.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67425906

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/guess-who-came-dinner-flynn-putin-n742696

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/23/reality-winner-sentence-classified-report-leak

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/10/politics/trump-russia-nato/index.html

Republican-led bi-partisan Senate Intelligence Committee: “The Russian government directed extensive activity against U.S. election infrastructure. The Committee found the activity directed at the state and local level began in at least 2014 and carried into at least 2017. The Committee has seen no evidence that any votes were changed or that any voting machines were manipulated.”

https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/press/senate-intel-releases-election-security-findings-first-volume-bipartisan-russia-report

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44825345

Putin’s small town flavor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoScy0BIGbc

Malice Toward Some

From Russia -with Malice

The jury found malice.

He truly hates that woman, the writer. And yes, sadly, I do believe he’s Putin’s idea of an asset, which took years to activate.

That’s it in a nut.

Malice! That’s the perfect word for Mighty Mouth. Mr Retribution!

Oh yes: He hates you too! But it’s the delicious obsessively slow-cooked rotisserie version of hate: Malice!

70% chance he hates your guts too, voter. And if you serve on a jury? Malice!

And if you stand between him and his goal of being king of the world? Malice!

And imagine the malice he learned from his old man Fred whose ghost haunts Donald-Son-of-Fred every minute of his miserable sub-existence.

Fred taught him the existentialism of greed, that it would be far better to hurl oneself off a cliff, hitting every notch and crag on the way down, than to ever give up the quest for domination. So ultimately it’s a form of Submission on behalf of the worthless piece of crap son of Fred.

Malice !

Malice. And utter contempt.

But hey.

Who has that kind of dough? Let’s walk it back.

Republicans are campaigning on “inflation” and the kitchen table and look here now, people.

I’m still reminiscing about the $400k he paid in hush money to keep Stormy Daniels quiet (checks he signed, genius) – and that crime hasn’t been tried yet- so that judgement could add to the total. Almost a half million in hush money paid. Before any criminal penalties yet to come.

(I keep wondering about his struggling supporters who probably make less than 40k /year. He has a million bucks to spend on a mistress? )

Plus the NY fraud case to be decided next week could be $300 million. And FOX is on the hook for $780 million, and two more defamation judgements are coming. So he’s setting a couple of billion dollars on fire, just…behavior issues. Truly.

Genius! He’s one angry pirate captain! He claims he has $400 million somehow in cash. No one believes that. Perhaps buried on the golf course. (I’ve heard Trumps are old-fashioned pirates: they bury stuff. Like in the actual ground.)

(The porn star payout wasn’t $130 k as was usually reported; it was three times that. $130 k for each porn star and a like fee to the attorney for the arrangement. Why this is considered a slap on the wrist affair is open to conjecture; perhaps for libertarians it’s all aspirational.)

He paid $25 million for Trump University. These are big ticket items for the smartest guy in the room.

His BFF Rudy is on the hook for $150 million, to keep things in perspective.

These are deals and gambits he devised! No Democrats were involved!

When you de-regulate everything this is what you get. Pirates.

“When you’re a star they let you do that.”

“It’s been going on for a million years, fortunately or unfortunately.”

Far Left Conspiracy? Ummm…

The Front Runner.

Alabama has done it, and now so can you!

“Alabama has done it and now so can you!”

-Steve Marshall, Alabama Attorney General.

That’s so upbeat!

Alabama is #1 at something!

Nitrogen gas executions.

Nitrogen hypoxia: It really works!

Less complicated than crucifixion, which is also death by hypoxia, or pressing by stones, or drowning. So many options.

Back in the day, 1700s, you could be drawn and quartered, beheaded, dragged and displayed in the Towne Square and no one would say boo. You could be shot and hanged and drowned in the river- all at once!

Alot of history and tradition there.

It took twenty minutes with the nitrogen, so presumably they could have just shoved the convict’s head in a bucket of water to achieve the exact same result.

What would civilized nations say?

Now that all murders are deterred we can all relax! Thanks, Alabama, for solving the crime problem. Again.

Now who is running for public office? This gets votes!

Stroke of “Genius”

Stroke of “Genius”

(Everyone knows, you’re only as pretty as you feel, am I right? Think on these things.)

-Now, it’s fairly certain Biden is taking care of himself. Exercise, watches his diet. Ice cream. Delegates authority. Massive teams with decades of experience and expertise do the heavy lifting.

But the other guy? The walking nuclear meltdown? Not so much.

The campaign, the trials, the constant travel, public appearances, sleepless schedule, more plain flights- all must take a toll on the supposed front runner.

76 years old, overweight, nearly died of Covid… Blowing a gasket publicly for years without sleep, probably on steroids, who knows what else?

Reminds me of President Wilson’s final campaign.

Woodrow Wilson toured the western states by train in 1919 to campaign for the League of Nations- and it destroyed his health. He was probably predisposed to stroke:

“The tour’s intense schedule—8,000 miles in 22 days—cost Wilson his health. During the tour he suffered constant headaches and, in late September, collapsed from exhaustion in Pueblo, Colorado. He managed to return to Washington, but suffered a near-fatal stroke on October 2. He recovered and continued to advocate passage of the covenant, but the stroke and Republican Warren Harding’s election to the presidency in 1921 effectively ended his campaign.”- History Channel blurb

My favorite psychic readers are predicting Hair Guy might run out of steam by October due to some lifestyle choices and the ghost of Fred lashing him forward.

Sad.

Ok, who’s next?

How about Warren G Harding?

Now, as I said, Biden takes pretty good care of himself. The other guy, not so much.

We know the other guy, the insurrection one, is making whistle stops in the dead of winter in an interlocking schedule of contentious court cases where he’s yelling at the judge and no hours of prolonged rest.

So. Predictions?

You’re 76, your corpulent, your joints are stiff, your extremities are numb, you can’t stop yelling, and your stay up all night shadow boxing and tilting at windmills on the internet.

Stroke? Long Covid? Steroids? Mood enhancers? Super-hormone growth formulas bought from Republican hucksters? All the above.

Turn back the page, one hundred years ago, President Warren G Harding.

“Harding hadn’t been in good health when he took off for a West Coast tour that some people saw as a step in laying the groundwork for a 1924 re-election campaign.

Witnesses said Harding didn’t look well during the trip, and that he may have suffered a bout with food poisoning after eating seafood. Harding’s doctors were concerned enough about his health to divert his train to San Francisco. Harding was able to walk off the train into a limousine, which took him to the Palace Hotel.” Then. Dead. Heart attack.

Well. Let’s see who can use court appearances and rallies as a substitute for sleep.

Tick. Tick. Tick. Like the energizer bunny!

How about LBJ? Had his first heart attack at 47. The currrnt contender in the lack of sleep marathon is old enough to be his dad.

President Johnson:

“He was one of the hardest-working presidents ever and could have lived much longer if he had changed the lifestyle factors that caused his first heart attack at age 47. He had 20-hour work days, was always sleep deprived, chain-smoked, drank excessive amounts of alcohol, was overweight and did not exercise. He had eaten hamburgers and fried foods virtually every day, loved sugary desserts such as tapioca pudding, and almost never ate vegetables.”
Villages News, FLA

Sound familiar?

So I do work in the medical profession, albeit on the lowest rung. I’d give the former guy some pro advice:

Sir sir!: Keep on! You’re doing fantastic! Everybody is saying so. There’s never been a campaign like this!

Who’s next?

Eisenhower. On the golf course.

“Eisenhower’s myocardial infarction began on Friday, September 23, 1955, while he was playing golf in Denver. At first, he attributed his discomfort to the hamburger he’d had for lunch. He went back to the house where he was a guest, continued to have what he thought was intermittent “indigestion,” then awoke around 2 a.m. with severe chest pain. His wife, Mamie, called Eisenhower’s personal physician, who arrived about 3 a.m.”

Yes- though he is not actually the president of the United States but a Pretender, he is vying for a place in some journals of medicine.

If he’s keeps this up, supporters may have to stop by during visiting hours and tap on the glass. An aide will assist with the famous “thumb’s up.”

Too cruel? (For a man devoted to destroying health care?) Perhaps you’re right. Answer the call bell quickly quickly.


Unity dis

How come we can’t have unity all of the sudden?

Most of the country was ok with it on November 7, when it was obvious Biden and Kamala Harris had won the election .

It could have been a sweet, fair victory. There was actual dancing in the streets .

But no. It became a three-month long living nightmare.

What happened?

The biggest mind-war campaign I’ve ever lived through since the Cold War.

It was one big thing, that ended with violence and mass delusion.

A mind-war promoted by the Republican Party.

This plot was one overarching plot. And the Republican Party was onboard with every single attempt. Including the mob sacking the Capitol resulting in the death of a Capitol police officer and the terror attack on Congress- which was intended to undermine the election.

The Ukraine thing was to undermine the election.
The Hunter Biden thing was to undermine the election.
The post office thing was to undermine the election.
The Durham Report that never happened was to undermine the election.
The President’s claims that he would only lose if the election were rigged was to undermine the election.
The Attorney General’s assertion that mail -in ballots were an invitation to fraud was meant to undermine the election
The president’s call for foreign governments to call with opposition data was to undermine the election.
The limiting of ballot drop-off boxes was to undermine the election.
Rudy’s foreign exploits and Devin Nunez’ subversion of intelligence were to undermine the election.
Roger Stone Stop the Steal was to undermine the election.
Trump’s ignorant rant that the election votes only count on Election Day and not after midnight was to undermine the election.
The President’s calls to intimidate Secretaries of State were to undermine the election.
Lindsey Graham’s call to Georgia seeking to discard ballots was meant to undermine the election.
The pressure campaign by untrained observers who threatened poll workers was to undermine the election.
The jamming of a Conservative Justice to the Supreme Court was to undermine the election.
The president declaring victory on election night so he could party was to undermine the election.
The accusations that mail-in ballots were illegal was to undermine the election and to set up frivolous court claims which were to undermine the election.
The 60+ court cases were to undermine the election.
The press conferences with Rudy and Sidney and Jenna, to present 1,000 falsehoods about the election were meant to undermine the election
The amplification of public discontent from ingesting all the false claims about the election was to undermine the election.
The delays in accepting the result of swing states by the Republicans were to undermine the election.
The exhaustion of the public through non-stop false propaganda was to undermine the election
The rallies with domestic terror groups were to undermine the election.
The ignoring of Covid and the underfunding of the states during the pandemic was to undermine the election.
The speeches calling for 1776-style revolution in the US were to undermine the election.
The threats to Georgia’s governor after the kidnap plot of the Michigan terrorists was to undermine the election.
The speech at the Ellipse was to undermine the election
The ransacking of the Capitol was to undermine the election.
The Republican vote against the certification of electoral ballots was meant to undermine the election.
The Republican support for 100% of the above was to undermine the election.
The threat of rampant organized armed uprisings at state capitols was to undermine the election.
The attack on the US Capitol was to buy time for the Republicans in Congress to undermine the election.

Was the Republican Party really acting within normal parameters all this time?

Did they have the right to these actions?

Was it only fair to give the President a chance to make his claims?

This is what the government was doing instead of addressing Covid-19.

So that’s why we can’t have nice things, I guess.

Antifascist USA

Vote Blue. Check your voter registration. Vote.

In World War Two Americans united in opposing anti-democratic movements that threatened civilization world wide.

This ant-fascist policy was approved at the highest levels of government.

Today we have an extremist movement of officeholders covalent with the ideology of fascism, with disregard for the will of the People, which denies the legitimacy of the Federal government, and which refuses to acknowledge the authority of the President of the United States, the clear winner of the election of 2020.

The American fascist movement has also refused to comply with various orders of the US Supreme Court or to legislate with the popular party it opposes.

The America fascist movement has also undermined the independence of a free press- an essential doctrine of the founding era.

This was anticipated in the founding era, and a precedent was set for the peaceful transition of power with the words excerpted below.


President of the United States George Washington, prescient regarding current Republican efforts to disrupt the national government:

“All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations under whatever plausible character with the real design to direct, control, counteract the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of the fundamental principle and of fatal tendency.

They serve to organize faction; to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party,

often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community;

and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common councils and modified by mutual interests.

However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”

-Washington’s Farewell Address, upon leaving office for private life.

(Pictured alongside the General is our “Paul Revere,” Woody Guthrie, with anti-fascist instrument. Sing out in November!)

Horror to the Right of Me

The rank horror of this is beyond description.

It is cynical in the extreme, how a president who promoted bonkers conspiracy theories of QAnon, and publicly called out armed militias to his campaign, could the same week, and while positive for Covid, days before his decisive loss to Biden, select a Supreme Court justice to overturn human rights in America. And then enact a coup to remain in office.

The same month -Sept 2020, in which Trump nominated Barrett, plans were already in place to declare victory in the event he lost the election. He had contemplated this since July, according to his campaign manager.

This was a president who, the September he nominated Barret- had left the hospital -against medical advice- after nearly dying in the ICU- forced his Secret Service detail to drive in circles to greet well-wishers after he exposed everyone to Covid. Nuts. Don’t let Covid scare you, he told supporters, after a million Americans had died.

My suspicion is Trump was propelled by side effects of steroids used in the life-saving treatment for his condition at Walter Reed. Ignoring doctors, he may have just assumed he had some new physical superpowers.

(Trump had Covid when he debated Joe Biden- 6 days before Trump was hospitalized- a national security lapse that wasn’t lost on the nation’s adversaries.)

Yes the man who ridiculed Biden for his age had just emerged from the hospital himself and was lucky to be alive.

Amy Coney Barrett was sworn in a week before the election- which Trump lost. Many of us had already cast votes.

And then Alito prepared a decision that was largely bigotry with hate speech permeating every line, and certainly framed to humiliate his opposition among the public.

That’s not really a “decision” weighing evidence and precedent- no it’s a a screed. A personal vendetta. An insult. A punishing blow.

Alito’s decision in Dobbs revived the Doctrine of Popular Sovereignty- which historically, on the eve of the Civil War, was promoted to allow states to decide for themselves whether or not to allow human bondage: slavery- overturning hard-fought compromises of Congress to maintain the Union. Lincoln argued against the doctrine, opposing the spread of slavery to the expanding new territories and states. Why? Because slavery is wrong, and all men are created equal- according to our founding declaration. It spurred his campaign to the presidency.

So the Civil War was fought over exactly this theory of Alito’s and nearly 1 million Americans died in a fight that evolved into an issue of basic fundamental human rights as Lincoln knew it would.

The Nation will either be one thing or another- but it will cease to be divided, Lincoln warned. A house divided cannot stand.

So judged against Lincoln, we have a pretty malevolent character in Samuel Alito.

One thing we can say: the anti-democracy fascists will never stop with the wrecking ball to all our pubic institutions. And they’re not listening. They do not care who lives or dies as this week’s atrocity, denying life-saving medical care in Texas, has proven.

Christmas Movies

So the Christmas movies are streaming and the characters are trying to decide whether to stay and take a risk and refurbish the lodge, but the woman has a condo and is torn.

Where is the condo? I asked Ingrid.

“In the city.”

So that’s the update on the Christmas movie front.

***

Thought I’d watch another with Ingrid.

We watched “Christmas at the Ranch” last night.

Woman is a workaholic who refuses to leave The City and the mother is a simple country empath with a Scottish accent and a Christmas sweater and bangs n Botox and a log mansion and insists she come home where all her stuff is exactly the same-(it looks like as a child she collected stuff from Cost Plus)

anywho

She bumps into old boyfriend and tries to hide behind a tree and it turns out the bloke is still doing the same old same old. He looks like an unfrozen caveman with a chiseled expression, standard issue.

“I’m a different person than I used to be” she insists, but she still remembers two chords to the song she tried to write decades ago with Caveman. Oh no Im thinking not the guitar.

She begins to play.

Cat next to me is snoring now.

Altar

2021
2022
2023

Dia de Los Muertos

The altars were all unplanned in general- each just seemed to emerge without effort from what was available and with the creativity of residents and the fragile ephemera of daily life. Like a little miracle.

Traditionally observed on Nov 1 & 2. A huge parade in the Mission District nearby, with drums and costumes and masks and face paint and candle lighting in a park.

We wondered whether the altars would of interest or perhaps too controversial or would bring up challenging emotions or would be uplifting and inspiring- but that may be true of all creativity, which often involves some risk of confusion or failure.

But the altars seemed to “want to” emerge anyway. Whether a tradition has begun remains to be seen.

One thing I’ve learned is there are many dimensions involved, and sometimes an invitation to contemplate. Most everything is fragile and passes away- would otherwise be forgotten or discarded. But for a time all is still and has a place and value.

Going forward I see the altar in its simplicity preferable to complex and challenging. The photos were up til the morning of Nov 2nd, and the altar gained in aesthetic appeal, when the photos were removed and it was no longer overladen with imagery, I believe. It became more decorative and welcoming. That may be a key to future presentation.

Unsure whether photos of those who died, as opposed to more creative symbolic representations, are acceptable to residents, given all their life and death challenges. Possibly a middle ground can be achieved somehow. I worry a little about this.

Thank you Mary Anne Voss for developing the idea into reality as a team. And to Augustina Ramos Silva from Oaxaca where the festival comes from, for approving and encouraging and providing the beautiful wall hanging. She is visiting her mother (in her nineties) in Mexico, and they definitely have their resplendent “ofrenda” there.

Peace.

The final day. Someone spotted the beautiful spirit stencil and made it the centerpiece.
Someone finished the altar for us