Ask yourself this: what was Paul Revere thinking? Would there be a pub open before the ride? Will Red, White and Blue (horse) rise to the occasion and take the whip without bitching?
What was Noah thinking? Will Home Depot give me a discount on a heavy duty ramp? Is the Galapagos tortoise going to make it in time? Is there enough weed in the hold to make it for even the mice. Q: where did Noah want to go?? An ark regatta?
Finally, What is crossing Trump’s mind these final days? A cogent, connected thought? Would Miss Universe still give him a “present” if it looks like he is going to lose? Will Joe still love him? Will MIke still want to sleep at the foot of his cot at Alcatraz?
I think we will always be able to laugh in the face of Dr. Doom but it would be a lot easier if he (she?) if she (he) were melting. No matter, I believe the future, because it is the future, is a mindset. We can design it any way we wish. It reminds me like of our Mexican “Father” asked me on day one with our Peace Corps family, “David, who always has the final word in any Mexican spousal argument?” Not wanting to tell him a lie on our first day, I said, “The wife.” Wrong,” he said, puffing up, “the husband. Do you know why? The husband can always respond as he is escaping, ‘Si, mi vida, lo que tu digas.” Yes, my love (life), whatever you say.
For a while, at least once daily for the last 4 years, I have fantasized that my remaining Republican friend, Brett, was going to call or, better yet, invite me for beer and brats and say, “Gotcha”, when we get together.
Playing along, since I already knew where he was going with this, I would respond, “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about the fact that I finally decided it was time to quit fooling around and just level with you. Your bugging the shit out of me has finally paid off. I finally caved. As a matter of fact, it happened several weeks ago when I realized that my team was probably gonna lose, maybe big, and I don’t like being a loser. Besides, I think I realized you might be right. In part. But I wanted to see you suffer a little. In a fun way, of course. No water-boarding.” Then he laughs his ass off at his own joke.
“You mean you’re voting Republican?”
“Whoa, whoa, slow down, big guy. Who said anything about the Republican ticket?” I’m talking the big kahuna, not the whole enchilada.”
“Are you shitting me?”
“Nope, I’m not. I decided that he was not presidential material as it turns out. I thought he really did look good on paper before 2016, but, ya know, he has blown it a coupla times as a president. He shouldn’t have used the P word publicly, at least not on tape, or delayed releasing the early information on Covid. Who knows, he may have saved a few lives. Also, he acts like a racist but I don’t think he is one. He’s just bad for the party.”
“What about Mitch ‘Gobble, Gobble,’ McConnell? He’s a Trump buttlicker and he leads the Senate around by the nose.”
“You know I was raised a Kentucky fried chicken, so I may not vote out old Mitch, but it’s tempting. Either he isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed or he is the sharpest. Maybe both.” He laughs again at his own joke, and I’m wondering why I have liked this guy since college. “He stands out in a rainstorm with his head aiming to the sky,” I say. Hoping to get a laugh. “And what about Lindsay, “y’all come” Graham? He’s another Senate invertebrate.” No laugh again.
“I stuck with Trump at Charlottesville because he really didn’t say that there were good people on both sides. That was PBS fake news. But in the first debate, he did by not having the cajones to condemn the white supremacists, and that bothered me. I was going WTF? They are new Nazis and we all know the Nazis did not give out good vibes during the big one. Trust me, I believe the history books. When I was a teenager, we knew an old Jew on our block, who hadescaped the Holocaust but his family didn’t. He had some badass stories, which may not have all been true, but he showed me black & white photos of his wife and kids. Pretty sad old man.”
“The boss also made a comment in Debate 2 about having done more for blacks in America since Honest Abe. And that he was the least racist person in the room. WTF? The moderator, Kristin Whelper was black. And shockingly pretty, I might add. Trump probably didn’t know that because he probably was staring at her black rack.” He laughed again.
And what about Nobama? He must have done something for his own people. Nobody else, though.” He chuckled again. “And the crowning blow was the statement about immigrants at the wall having to turn around and go home and only those with the lowest IQs returned for their court cases. How would he know? At this point in our history, he might be right. The higher the IQ, the greater the likelihood they may opt to stay in Venezuela or Guatemala. Keen sabe?”
“Were you fooled? Did I getcha?” Brett asked.
“Yeah, you really did.”
I thought to myself, why are we even having this conversation? You got a degree from a good college even though it was in VCR repair, you come from a professional Midwest family. Why wouldn’t Trump scare the bejesus out of you at the getgo? You read the National Enquirer, so you know all about his escapades. You thought 9/11 was the end of the world? What’s the difference? Trump has been a nuclear war on slow boil.
And now, you finally get what I’ve been saying all along? Why now? Why not when the guy stole his first bag of marbles from a crippled kid and then beat him up? Is it that you hate to lose and now you recognize him as a loser?
To the best of my knowledge, we have never seen a loser of this magnitude in a high office before. On second thought, we did see Seabiscuit lose against a 3-legged Shetland pony, and even a second time against a clock.
Pride would explain the reason many continue to vote for Donald but most of his supporters don’t have much to be proud of so what are they defending?
But these would be the same individuals who would be proud of their pet rock or their grade school drop-out to take a career in prostitution. Were pride the issue, these people would be proud to be asked to join a golf foursome of Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein, and Trump.
And then there’s the money motivator. Most people don’t divulge openly their goal in life is to make bundles of dough as easily as possible. Admirable goal if you don’t have much else in your life but materialism. But the materialists still don’t get the simplest of economics equations when they ignore the environment:
Zero Ecology = Zero Economy
Or in a way more sophisticated equation:
Climate Change = Fire = Zero Trees = Zero Houses = Zero Income
There is a reason the words ecology and economy sound similar; they have the same Greek root; oikos, and oikos means family, or family property or house, implying a system that is open in the sense that it requires an input of energy to run it. True of both an ecosystem, true of an economic system, but the ecological system – economic system is a one-way relationship. You can have a healthy ecosystem without a healthy economic system, but not the reverse. So, a devastated tropical rainforest ecosystem causes a destroyed economy that based its livelihood on a healthy rainforest.
Of course, I never said any of these things to Brett, I just wondered. Did the Nazi guards play Gotcha with the Jews? Trump never killed anyone, as far as we know but on the other hand how many thousands of people might not have died from Covid-19 were it not for the fact that he covered up Covid-19 and blamed the Chinese for its spread, has made a mockery of lockdown and scientists even after he got the crud himself, and never has come up with a comprehensive national plan.
I wish Brett would play Gotcha with me, but I really don’t care, if I could only be assured that there are thousands of Bretts faking it in America, who would admit to themselves that it was a mistake in 2016 and vote for a future not a today. No one has to know, that’s the beauty of the vote. No one has to know. The outcome matters only to us. The fact that the world is watching and waiting to see if we are as stupid as they think we are doesn’t. Dubya 2X raised some eyebrows but Trump 2X would ice the cake.
Trump was a massive mistake in 2016 but we did it anyway maybe because he was what we believed to be the panacea to a dysfunctional Washington. Drain the swamp. Only now that swamp has spread across America. Getting to know Trump over 4 years has been entertaining, disgusting, shocking and now frightening. We unleashed a bad genie and now we have to get him back in the box.
Domestically speaking, I think it’s safe to say that this level of polarization occurred only once in our history: The Civil War. You can’t count the Revolutionary War because we were in solidarity against the Red Coats. Social polarization is a bridge that stretches until the center collapses leaving no connective cables.
Four more years of fueled hatred and distrust of each other would be irrevocable and those four years would give a madman plenty of time to complete his work. I don’t think Trump is bright enough to have mapped out a plan, but he has had years of predatory business experience to see that this country was floundering and stressed. He saw that the henhouse was unguarded, and the hens drugged or primping themselves to distraction. I don’t think our democracy has been seriously challenged since The Civil War but now there is no Abraham Lincoln around. There has never been a worse time in history for such an internal attack because it is occurring simultaneously with the two external and the most horrific assailants in history: an unleashed pandemic and unleashed climate change. What happens when you add a Santa Ana to a powder dry raging wildfire? You might as well add gasoline. That forest will not come back in decades, probably never to its original state. Failure is not an option. This is not a wake-up call, this is a last call. The wake-up call was four years ago.
For a while, at least once daily for the last 4 years, I have fantasized that my remaining Republican friend, Brett, was going to call or, better yet, invite me for beer and brats and say, “Gotcha”, when we get together.
Playing along, since I already knew where he was going with this, I would respond, “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about the fact that I finally decided it was time to quit fooling around and just level with you. Your bugging the shit out of me has finally paid off. I finally caved. As a matter of fact, it happened several weeks ago when I realized that my team was probably gonna lose, maybe big, and I don’t like being a loser. Besides, I think I realized you might be right. In part. But I wanted to see you suffer a little. In a fun way, of course. No water-boarding.” Then he laughs his ass off at his own joke.
“You mean you’re voting Republican?”
“Whoa, whoa, slow down, big guy. Who said anything about the Republican ticket?” I’m talking the big kahuna, not the whole enchilada.”
“Are you shitting me?”
“Nope, I’m not. I decided that he was not presidential material as it turns out. I thought he really did look good on paper before 2016, but, ya know, he has blown it a coupla times as a president. He shouldn’t have used the P word publicly, at least not on tape, or delayed releasing the early information on Covid. Who knows, he may have saved a few lives. Also, he acts like a racist but I don’t think he is one. He’s just bad for the party.”
“What about Mitch ‘gooble, gooble,’ McConnell? He’s a Trump buttlicker and he leads the Senate around by the nose.”
“You know I was raised a Kentucky fried chicken, so I may not vote out old Mitch, but it’s tempting. Either he isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed or he is the sharpest. Maybe both.” He laughs again at his own joke, and I’m wondering why I have liked this guy since college. “He stands out in a rainstorm with his head aiming to the sky,” I say. Hoping to get a laugh. “And what about Lindsay, “y’all come” Graham? He’s another Senate invertebrate.” No laugh again.
“I stuck with Trump at Charlottesville because he really didn’t say that there were good people on both sides. That was PBS fake news. But in the first debate, he did by not having the cajones to condemn the white supremacists, and that bothered me. I was going WTF? They are new Nazis and we all know the Nazis did not give out good vibes during the big one. Trust me, I believe the history books. When I was a teenager, we knew an old Jew on our block, who had he escaped the Holocaust. He had some badass stories, which may not have all been true, but he showed me black & white photos of his wife and kids and they weren’t around.”
“The boss also made a comment in Debate 2 about having done more for blacks in America since Honest Abe. And that he was the least racist person in the room. WTF? The moderator, Kristin Whelper was black. And shockingly pretty, I might add. Trump probably didn’t know that because he probably was staring at her rack. He laughed again. In my fantasy.
And what about Nobama? He must have done something for his own people. Nobody else, though.” He chuckled again. “And the crowning blow was the statement about immigrants at the wall having to turn around and only those with the lowest IQs returned for their court cases. How would he know? At this point in our history, he might be right. The higher the IQ, the greater the likelihood they may opt to stay in Venezuela or Guatemala??
“Were you fooled? Did I getcha?” Brett asked.
“Yeah, you really did.”
I thought to myself, why? You got a degree from a good college even though it was in VCR repair, you come from a professional Midwest family. Why wouldn’t Trump scare the bejesus out of you at the getgo? You read the National Enquirer, so you know all about his escapades. You thought 9/11 was the end of the world? What’s the difference? Trump has been a nuclear war on slow boil.
And now, you finally get what I’ve been saying all along? Why now? Why not when the guy stole his first bag of marbles from a crippled kid and then beat him up? Is it that you hate to lose and now you recognize him as a loser?
To the best of my knowledge, we have never seen a loser of this magnitude in a high office before. On second thought, we did see Seabiscuit lose against a 3-legged Shetland pony, and even a second time against a clock.
Pride would explain the reason many continue to vote for Donald but most of his supporters don’t have much to be proud of so what are they defending?
But these would be the same individuals who would be proud of their pet rock or their grade school drop-out to take a career in prostitution. Were pride the issue, these people would be proud to be asked to join a golf fivesome of Bill Cosby, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein.
And then there’s the money motivator. Most people don’t divulge openly their goal in life is to make bundles of dough as easily as possible. Admirable goal if you don’t have much else in your life but materialism. But the materialists still don’t get the simplest of economics equations when they ignore the environment:
Zero Ecology =Zero Economy
Or in a way more sophisticated equation:
Climate Change = Fire = Zero Trees = Zero Houses = Zero Income
There is a reason the words ecology and economy sound similar; they have the same Greek root; oikos, and oikos means family, or family property or house, implying a system that is open in the sense that it requires an input of energy to run it. True of both an ecosystem, true of an economic system, but the ecological system – economic system is a one-way relationship. You can have a healthy ecosystem without a healthy economic system, but not the reverse. So, a devastated tropical rainforest ecosystem causes a destroyed economy that based its livelihood on a healthy rainforest.
Of course, I never said any of these things to Brett, I just wondered. Did the Nazi guards play Gotcha with the Jews? Trump never killed anyone, as far as we know but on the other hand how many thousands of people might not have died from Covid-19 were it not for the fact that he covered up Covid-19 and blamed the Chinese for its spread, has made a mockery of lockdown and scientists even after he got the crud himself, and never has come up with a comprehensive national plan.
I wish Brett would play Gotcha with me, but I really don’t care, if I could only be assured that there are thousands of Bretts faking it in America, who would admit to themselves that it was a mistake in 2016 and vote for a future not a today. No one has to know, that’s the beauty of the vote. No one has to know. The outcome matters only to us. The fact that the world is watching and waiting to see if we are as stupid as they think we are doesn’t. Dubya 2X raised some eyebrows but Trump 2X would ice the cake.
Trump was a massive mistake in 2016 but we did it anyway maybe because he was what we believed to be the panacea to a dysfunctional Washington. Drain the swamp. Only now that swamp has spread across America. Getting to know Trump over 4 years has been entertaining, disgusting, shocking and now frightening. We unleashed a bad genie and now we have to get him back in the box.
Domestically speaking, I think it’s safe to say that this level of polarization occurred only once in our history: The Civil War. You can’t count the Revolutionary War because we were in solidarity against the Red Coats. Social polarization is a bridge that stretches until the center collapses leaving no connective cables.
Four more years of fueled hatred and distrust of each other would be irrevocable and those four years would give a madman plenty of time to complete his work. I don’t think Trump is bright enough to have mapped out a plan, but he has had years of predatory business experience to see that this country was floundering and stressed. He saw that the henhouse was unguarded, and the hens drugged or primping themselves to distraction. I don’t think our democracy has been seriously challenged since The Civil War but now there is no Abraham Lincoln around. There has never been a worse time in history for such an internal attack because it is occurring simultaneously with the two external and the most horrific assailants in history: an unleashed pandemic and unleashed climate change. What happens when you add a Santa Ana to a powder dry raging wildfire? You might as well add gasoline. That forest will not come back in decades, probably never to its original state. Failure is not an option. This is not a wake-up call, this is a last call. The wake-up call was four years ago.
For a while, at least once daily for the last 4 years, I have fantasized that my remaining Republican friend, Brett, was going to call or, better yet, invite me for beer and brats and say, “Gotcha”, when we get together.
Playing along, since I already knew where he was going with this, I would respond, “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about the fact that I finally decided it was time to quit fooling around and just level with you. Your bugging the shit out of me has finally paid off. I finally caved. As a matter of fact, it happened several weeks ago when I realized that my team was probably gonna lose, maybe big, and I don’t like being a loser. Besides, I think I realized you might be right. In part. But I wanted to see you suffer a little. In a fun way, of course. No water-boarding.” Then he laughs his ass off at his own joke.
“You mean you’re voting Republican?”
“Whoa, whoa, slow down, big guy. Who said anything about the Republican ticket?” I’m talking the big kahuna, not the whole enchilada.”
“Are you shitting me?”
“Nope, I’m not. I decided that he was not presidential material as it turns out. I thought he really did look good on paper before 2016, but, ya know, he has blown it a coupla times as a president. He shouldn’t have used the P word publicly, at least not on tape, or delayed releasing the early information on Covid. Who knows, he may have saved a few lives. Also, he acts like a racist but I don’t think he is one. He’s just bad for the party.”
“What about Mitch ‘gooble, gooble,’ McConnell? He’s a Trump buttlicker and he leads the Senate around by the nose.”
“You know I was raised a Kentucky fried chicken, so I may not vote out old Mitch, but it’s tempting. Either he isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed or he is the sharpest. Maybe both.” He laughs again at his own joke, and I’m wondering why I have liked this guy since college. “He stands out in a rainstorm with his head aiming to the sky,” I say. Hoping to get a laugh. “And what about Lindsay, “y’all come” Graham? He’s another Senate invertebrate.” No laugh again.
“I stuck with Trump at Charlottesville because he really didn’t say that there were good people on both sides. That was PBS fake news. But in the first debate, he did by not having the cajones to condemn the white supremacists, and that bothered me. I was going WTF? They are new Nazis and we all know the Nazis did not give out good vibes during the big one. Trust me, I believe the history books. When I was a teenager, we knew an old Jew on our block, who had he escaped the Holocaust. He had some badass stories, which may not have all been true, but he showed me black & white photos of his wife and kids and they weren’t around.”
“The boss also made a comment in Debate 2 about having done more for blacks in America since Honest Abe. And that he was the least racist person in the room. WTF? The moderator, Kristin Whelper was black. And shockingly pretty, I might add. Trump probably didn’t know that because he probably was staring at her rack. He laughed again. In my fantasy.
And what about Nobama? He must have done something for his own people. Nobody else, though.” He chuckled again. “And the crowning blow was the statement about immigrants at the wall having to turn around and only those with the lowest IQs returned for their court cases. How would he know? At this point in our history, he might be right. The higher the IQ, the greater the likelihood they may opt to stay in Venezuela or Guatemala??
“Were you fooled? Did I getcha?” Brett asked.
“Yeah, you really did.”
I thought to myself, why? You got a degree from a good college even though it was in VCR repair, you come from a professional Midwest family. Why wouldn’t Trump scare the bejesus out of you at the getgo? You read the National Enquirer, so you know all about his escapades. You thought 9/11 was the end of the world? What’s the difference? Trump has been a nuclear war on slow boil.
And now, you finally get what I’ve been saying all along? Why now? Why not when the guy stole his first bag of marbles from a crippled kid and then beat him up? Is it that you hate to lose and now you recognize him as a loser?
To the best of my knowledge, we have never seen a loser of this magnitude in a high office before. On second thought, we did see Seabiscuit lose against a 3-legged Shetland pony, and even a second time against a clock.
Pride would explain the reason many continue to vote for Donald but most of his supporters don’t have much to be proud of so what are they defending?
But these would be the same individuals who would be proud of their pet rock or their grade school drop-out to take a career in prostitution. Were pride the issue, these people would be proud to be asked to join a golf fivesome of Bill Cosby, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein.
And then there’s the money motivator. Most people don’t divulge openly their goal in life is to make bundles of dough as easily as possible. Admirable goal if you don’t have much else in your life but materialism. But the materialists still don’t get the simplest of economics equations when they ignore the environment:
Zero Ecology = Zero Economy
Or in a way more sophisticated equation:
Climate Change = Fire = Zero Trees = Zero Houses = Zero Income
There is a reason the words ecology and economy sound similar; they have the same Greek root; oikos, and oikos means family, or family property or house, implying a system that is open in the sense that it requires an input of energy to run it. True of both an ecosystem, true of an economic system, but the ecological system – economic system is a one-way relationship. You can have a healthy ecosystem without a healthy economic system, but not the reverse. So, a devastated tropical rainforest ecosystem causes a destroyed economy that based its livelihood on a healthy rainforest.
Of course, I never said any of these things to Brett, I just wondered. Did the Nazi guards play Gotcha with the Jews? Trump never killed anyone, as far as we know but on the other hand how many thousands of people might not have died from Covid-19 were it not for the fact that he covered up Covid-19 and blamed the Chinese for its spread, has made a mockery of lockdown and scientists even after he got the crud himself, and never has come up with a comprehensive national plan.
I wish Brett would play Gotcha with me, but I really don’t care, if I could only be assured that there are thousands of Bretts faking it in America, who would admit to themselves that it was a mistake in 2016 and vote for a future not a today. No one has to know, that’s the beauty of the vote. No one has to know. The outcome matters only to us. The fact that the world is watching and waiting to see if we are as stupid as they think we are doesn’t. Dubya 2X raised some eyebrows but Trump 2X would ice the cake.
Trump was a massive mistake in 2016 but we did it anyway maybe because he was what we believed to be the panacea to a dysfunctional Washington. Drain the swamp. Only now that swamp has spread across America. Getting to know Trump over 4 years has been entertaining, disgusting, shocking and now frightening. We unleashed a bad genie and now we have to get him back in the box.
Domestically speaking, I think it’s safe to say that this level of polarization occurred only once in our history: The Civil War. You can’t count the Revolutionary War because we were in solidarity against the Red Coats. Social polarization is a bridge that stretches until the center collapses leaving no connective cables.
Four more years of fueled hatred and distrust of each other would be irrevocable and those four years would give a madman plenty of time to complete his work. I don’t think Trump is bright enough to have mapped out a plan, but he has had years of predatory business experience to see that this country was floundering and stressed. He saw that the henhouse was unguarded, and the hens drugged or primping themselves to distraction. I don’t think our democracy has been seriously challenged since The Civil War but now there is no Abraham Lincoln around. There has never been a worse time in history for such an internal attack because it is occurring simultaneously with the two external and the most horrific assailants in history: an unleashed pandemic and unleashed climate change. What happens when you add a Santa Ana to a powder dry raging wildfire? You might as well add gasoline. That forest will not come back in decades, probably never to its original state. Failure is not an option. This is not a wake-up call, this is a last call. The wake-up call was four years ago.
Tomorrow, I go into the hospital for a total knee replacement, so if you hear from me over the next few weeks, it will be from a hallucinogenic and prone perspective. No different than normal, some would say. By comparison to all the horrific medical maladies we face today, a knee replacement is pissant. I’m 77 so any surgery can’t be taken lightly, especially in a pandemic world. Fortunately, I’m in good physical shape, still possessing 12-pak abs and buns of steel.
I watched David Attenborough’s, “A Life on Our Planet” a few days ago and was fascinated, deeply saddened, but not surprised. At 94, after a lifetime of producing dozens of phenomenal nature documentaries, this is Attenborough’s swan song and he could not have done a better job. As he said, he has led an extremely fortunate life as a biologist. I can relate, but in a much scaled down way because I, too, as an ecologist, have led a life of tremendous good fortune. I could not ask for more, having started my career with three months in the Galapagos Islands, followed by research in Ecuador, Antarctica, Argentina, and Mexico. I also lived in New Zealand and Alaska. Not bad for a dipstick.
A Life on Our Planet is brutally honest and a horrific view of the future, but he leaves you with hope. Attenborough believes that the solutions are not that complicated. Alternative energy and highly efficient food production are just a few. However, we need the will and right now, certainly America seems inert in that regard. We need a transformation and that transformation starts with rather drastically changing our political situation.
These cartoons are not actually funny, certainly considering Attenborough’s documentary and what I know about our potential future. The president is doing his damnedest to fulfill Attenborough’s horror show. Please get involved; the clock is ticking at an exponential rate.
The IS3 has ended. It appeared it was going to last forever, but, at least, for my sake, it didn’t. I’m Baba, the exponentially aging grandfather of the Seattle 3 (S3). Their mom (Mom), our oldest daughter, always joins the IS3 while the father (Dad), always has to work and rarely can join an IS3. Hmmm………
Mom assured me that the end would come sometime on or after November 3rd, whenever Sun and Moon could agree to permanently cast a shadow on America or not. If they agree it is to be permanent, the S3 stay. Mom believes permanent darkness would be more survivable in Boise than Seattle. Fortunately, for me, she changed her mind. She changed her mind because I am going under the knife on Monday for knee surgery and a Hell on Earth House was specifically forbidden by my surgeon. I also told her my surgeon had insisted I be quarantined a month prior to and following surgery. It was beginning to look like Mom was going to ignore both.
Mom
Mom does have moments of compassion because she has survived a daily IS3 at her home besides being physically and mentally tougher than shit. Ama hasn’t and isn’t. Mom knows what it’s like to feel the need to contact the ER, but daily. And when it comes to an IS3, Ama could tolerate a Hell on Earth House forever. She is the quintessential Eveready Grandma on Steroid. I am married to Ama.
For those of you who didn’t read the earlier story, Hot Wheels, when I introduced you to the Seattle 3, I will refresh your memory. They live in Seattle and travel to Boise frequently to visit Ama and me. The oldest boy, G-Man, is 8 and the younger two, the twins, JJ and Ben, are 6. They are slightly abnormal little boys which means they are Synergistic Eveready Little Boys on Steroids. I’m almost 78 going on 150, Ama is 39 going on 25.
In past visits I never had to remind myself that the 1978 movie, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” was child’s play compared to an IS3. As always, we had many fantastic times like playing Uno and Trash, card games which kids find simple and fun while seniors find them complicated and stressful. But I drank Mr. T (tequila) during the games which made them extremely fun but much more difficult. Who cares?
For additional fun, the S3 organized a combo birthday and Halloween party for their aunt, daughter No. 2, who lives across the street. It lasted an entire day and it was a real blast because I had another bottle of Mr. T hidden under the sofa. It involved bobbing for apples, biting swinging donuts, dressing up their aunt and other mirthful activities. The party was held prematurely by several weeks because the S3 had to leave before the actual events were to occur. Who cares?
The S3 are funny, bright and loving. Most of the time they are a joy to be with unless they are riding their scooters up and down the walls and ceiling or pulling Sprout’s tail until he bites me. I forgot to mention that an IS3 always includes a small, perpetually moving, continuous yapping, and too-quick-to-kick-large rat sized mammal, Mr. Sprout.
Sprout
During their visits, especially during Covid-19, there are always issues. Frequently negative issues. Allow me to enumerate a few.
Inadequate space. Our home is 1600 sq. ft. and drops to 400 sq. ft. during an IS3. We have 2 bedrooms, actually 3, but one is my Manly Man Cave which has 2 locks on a door constructed of a bullet proof, bank vault style door designed to withstand a nuclear blast.
Our Home
Inadequate bedding. Sprout and Ama share our queen-sized bed. If I’m lucky, I can salvage a few inches before dropping off into an abyss. An abyss is not synonymous with sleep. Ama and I have a Dream Cloud Premier 15 mattress, which is 4 ft. thick. Image, dear readers, every kid’s nightmare: falling off a bunkbed. Sprout and Ama love each other deeply, and her love for me can vary. Keep in mind that I have upcoming surgery and I’m 77 and that a good sleep is vital for maintaining the immune system, thus reducing chances of dying, especially during an epidemic. I also have a pacemaker and CPAP. “Your issues are not relevant,” sez Ama. “You know bloody full well that Sprout visits are infrequent.” I ask myself during an IS3 whether an oxygen tank would improve my ranking and visibility.
The S2 occupy the other queen bed in the guest room. Mom usually sleeps on a pad crammed against the wall in the same room. My Manly Man Cave, the 3rd bedroom is off-limits and always locked, whether I’m in or out. I tell the S3 that I have a pet, a perpetually hungry saber-toothed alligator at my side always, leashed on a thread. They know I’m lying because they know their alligator facts as they’ve watched thousands of nature documentaries on PBS Kids.
Inadequate down time. During an epidemic, children’s activities, like schooling, playing, eating, sleeping, screwing around, screaming, dropping a deuce (poo), and pulling dogs’ ears are confined to small spaces, like our home. During this IS3, our home begged to join me on my secretly planned Bahama vacation. Prior to my escape ruminations, I attempted to break into Fred Meyers pharmacy at midnight. I’d forgotten that Freddy is open 24/7. I told the police that my surgeon okayed opioid use prior to my surgery once he learned of my situation.
Inadequate liquor supply. During Covid-19, the shelves of the liquor store are empty. A few bottles of Bloody Mary mix were still available and so were the miniatures, so I cleared out their supply of 3 shooters. Fortunately, I had two bottles of tequila (Mr. T) well hidden.
Inadequate DoggyPoo bags. During Covid-19, the shelves of Freddy’s DoggyPoo bags are empty. I guess it’s because pets, especially dogs, during house confinement, will talk to you and walk with you and love you for better or for worse, when family members won’t. Dogs are not confined to small homes, but they are to small back yards. Thus, things get slippery when playing catch with small boys. If one does venture out on a walk with the dog, one does it at night. Sprout has a friend, Ryder (owned by neighbor, our youngest daughter) who stays with us during the day. Ryder is a big black lab who deposits big black piles of poo.
Sprout & Ryder Enjoying Their New Kong Frisbee
The IS3 this time was decidedly not totally life-threatening for geriatrics, but at times, I was dubious. I almost cried when they drove away to return home. The house always seems empty after an IS3. It is. But Ryder is still with us and the park is close, plus he has a new frisbee which glows in the dar
When Thomas Paine wrote in 1776 in The American Crisis, “These are the times that try men’s souls,” little did he know that the crisis to which he was referring, the American Revolution, would pale in comparison to the multiple crises, we face today. After watching two debates, one presidential, one vice-presidential, it is clearer than ever, that we, as a nation, are more divided, and significantly more challenged and unprepared for the future than ever before in our 250 years of history. Three humongous crises are interwoven, and all three are working synergistically to destroy the fabric of our nation and our democracy. All three will annihilate us totally and irrevocably if left unattended. All three have repercussions and ramifications that will go on forever. All three affect the rest of the world. All three have several sub-crises. All three are facts, not opinions.
The sub-crises, such as health care, the economic and education crises, are nurtured and exacerbated by a) runaway epidemic, b) runaway climate change and environmental degradation, and c) decomposing democracy. If we don’t re-attach our brains on or before November 3, and vote as intelligent, compassionate, altruistic, and thinking Homo sapiens, we will be no better than our primate ancestors, proving that we really haven’t evolved cerebrally at all. In fact, we may have de-evolved, because, unlike our primate ancestors, we can’t seem to work together as a cohesive since the onset of the war in Vietnam, maybe WWII. Since then, too many of us have revealed our basic ingredients to be greed, selfishness, narcissism and immorality. We have become driven by self, not community interests. We have reached THE turning point, the granddaddy of all previous turning points. We are at the top of a spiral slide that descends, more rapidly with each turn, into a black hole from which there is absolute darkness and no return.
This picture is dark and negative but 2020 has been a dark and negative year. America has achieved an historic low. Quite likely, future historians will consider it the worst year in our history. I say that because the recovery from the disastrous 2020, if even possible, will be incredibly difficult because it presents us with several equally daunting challenges. In the past, horrible years were usually because a war, an assassination, economic depression, etc.; the challenge was typically not multi-faceted, as with 2020.
This is not a happy story, but truth is not always happy. We might have minimized forthcoming tragedy had we not had a president who has distracted us daily with infantile diversions. That may be his biggest crime in a litany of big crimes. The Orange Orangutan sitting in the Oval Office exhibits the worst traits of primates. In fact, the wild orange orangutan may be the much superior creature. Having a completely dysfunctional Congress has iced the cake of distractions.
The solutions are tightly interwoven and involve actions implemented over the next several years. A rejuvenated President, Congress, and Supreme Court and the People must:
See the light of reality. We have become a nation led by non-thinking, prejudiced and selfish human beings. We need to wake up and join the real world.
Wound the elephant. The GOP is clearly no longer devoted to the people. Wounding the elephant involves flipping the party of the President and the Senate, maintaining the House and balancing the Supreme Court.
Plan for the future. Implement a Comprehensive National Plan (CNP), whether it be the Biden Plan or the Green New Deal or a mixture of both. A CNP must immediately address the big crises. One CNP is an oversimplification of what will have many component plans, such as a epidemic plan, a climate change plan, and reconstruction plans for the economy, education, health care, etc. Even if Biden is elected but the dominant party doesn’t flip in the Senate, the CNP is unlikely to happen, certainly in a timely fashion (like NOW!). Mitch McConnell will continue to lead his flock of sycophantic, weak and cowardly obstructionists and Washington will continue to remain dysfunctional.
Implement bipartisanship. Both parties of Congress must cooperate, compromise and turn their attention immediately to the dominant crises and not to the president. The Democratic party cannot stand alone.
Implement nonpartisanship. The highest court of the land can’t properly serve the country fairly if it isn’t balanced.
Implement nonviolence. Law and order must succeed without violence to allow a healthy democracy and society to exist. This involves two components:
Anarchist activities must have serious consequences. Radical extremist movements must be squelched or reduced to having a benign impact. Otherwise, terror will severely cripple any chance for a healthy and safe country.
Serious gun laws must be enacted and enforced. America needs to grow up and join the 21st century and the rest of the civilized world.
Act like a real democracy. Vote and talk to each other about real and controversial issues. Prepare for serious sacrifice.
Sound impossible? In the modern America we have seen in recent times? Totally. But I believe in miracles. 2020 has been the year of the disaster, 2021 must be the year of the miracle.
