Believe it or not, America is just short of twelve months away from the next Presidential election, potentially the last one ever held in this country.
It looks more and more like the election will pit two old farts against each other… for the second time. President Joe Biden, who turned 81 years old on Monday will apparently be the Democratic Party candidate, while ex-President Donald Trump, a youngster at 77 years old, appears to be a lead pipe cinch to represent the Republican Party. Biden beat Trump by 7 million votes in 2020; however, inflation, the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, and a very leaky Mexican border have resulted in the 2024 race being forecasted to be a very close one.
Incredibly, the disgraced former President could win the contest despite the many legal problems that he is facing at this time.
I shudder to think what would happen to, and within, the U.S.A. should Trump be elected. In his first term, he surrounded himself with fawning idealogues, ignored the advice of experts, ditched the traditions and protocols of the Presidency, and embarrassed our nation on the world stage by undermining our traditional allies and sucking up to dictators. And then, pooh poohed the Covid-19 pandemic and measures taken to combat it, resulting in the worst effort of all industrialized countries… a whopping 1 million deaths from the coronavirus.
This time around, candidate Trump is promising, if elected, to carry out a war of retribution and vengeance against all his “enemies”, which include Democrats, moderate Republicans, Jews, Mexicans, Chinese, journalists, FBI employees, judges and prosecutors, BLM activists, and former Trump Administration employees who had the temerity to rat out his illegal activities and half-baked policy ideas between 2017 and 2021. Trump recently referred to this group of perceived antagonists as “vermin” that needed to be eradicated.
Adolph Hitler used that same wordage to refer to Jews, intellectuals, and his opponents… who were later sent to gas chambers.
I have no doubt that Donald Trump, if elected in 2024, would cobble together some sort of Brown Shirt brigade to wreak havoc on our heretofore democratic country, much like he did (illegally) while in office during the Black Lives Matter protests.
Protesting government decisions would be a risky proposition under Trump II, as autocrats don’t like criticism. Elections would be in jeopardy, as well, because Trump doesn’t trust them and (based upon the Jan 6 Capitol Riot) doesn’t think he has to abide by them.
It is incredible to me that Donald Trump, with all his warts, could be elected next year. This prospect is the clearest evidence to date that the United States is circling the drain, potentially becoming a laughingstock among nations for its bad judgment. The guy has nothing to offer except hate, narcissism, and bad ideas.
Evidently, many Americans are willing to cast aside the Constitution and the rule of law and take their chances on a guy who already failed them once.
Joe Biden is quietly doing the job he was elected to do. He inherited an economy on the brink of a depression, which has been avoided thus far by drastic action from the Federal Reserve. Higher interest rate hikes have affected everything from soup to nuts, producing lots of wailing and gnashing from potential voters. However, the overall economy seems to be weathering the storm.
The biggest issues facing Biden’s re-election plans are (1) his age, and (2) illegal immigration. He can’t do anything about (1) and doesn’t seem to be doing anything at all about (2). Also, the military aid that the U.S. is providing Ukraine and Israel has struck a nerve among a lot of potential voters: wouldn’t that money be better spent here in America, making our country stronger?
I’m old enough to remember democracy working in this country. Up until a half century ago, leaders from both political parties would iron out their differences and create policy that made lives better for most Americans. “Compromise” was the key, and it resulted in the transcontinental railroad, the interstate highway system, putting a man on the moon, and so forth. Nowadays, the entire country is so caught up in partisan positions (Red vs. Blue, Religious vs. non-Religious, Gun Rights vs. Gun Control advocates, Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice, etc.) that public officials elected to solve problems instead spend all of their time in D.C. blaming the other side and publicly badmouthing each other. These “adults” are engaged in an unending spitwad shooting contest… and seem proud of themselves for doing so.
Our system of government seems to be, in the Digital Age, incapable of functioning in the interest of the majority of Americans. Perhaps voters are ready to throw in the towel on democracy? That could very well be what happens in 2024.
Unfortunately, when a country moves from a democracy to a dictatorship, it is usually a permanent thing. Authoritarian figures don’t want or need input from the average citizen, and they certainly don’t like criticism. Scapegoats (religious, ethnic, racial) are used to deflect attention from the failures of the regime. Nepotism is almost assured. Elections, if they have any, are truly “rigged” to the benefit of the despot, much like the elections in Russia.
We Americans have become very used to free speech, freedom of movement, freedom to worship whatever God we want, freedom to possess firearms, and the Rule of Law. Authoritarian governments are not keen on any of these “rights”.
Therein lies the crux of the matter: discarding the democratic model (because you are frustrated by it) could put Americans in a worse position… and it’s a decision that is almost impossible to reverse short of a civil war.
I don’t know what will happen in 2024. I’ve been lucky to have lived under democracy for my entire life and think it is a viable model if elected officials take their roles seriously and TRY to solve problems. However, if most Americans want to experience something different, where all ideas and solutions emanate from the same narcissist, then so be it.
I won’t be around much longer to endure the consequences; let the Gen Z folks deal with it.
I recently made reservations for Charlie and I to spend our 50th wedding anniversary at a beach resort in Zihuatanejo, Mexico in March, 2024.
We are very comfortable down in ‘Ol Mexico, having traveled there a lot over the decades. My personal history with Mexico involves almost 70 years of travel, recreation, and good times. I can read and speak some Spanish, so I’m pretty at ease with the culture, and the locals are always friendly.
It began back in the 1950’s when my parents built a vacation residence in Baja California just a few clicks north of Ensenada. Our abode was a small travel trailer with an add-on structure so that there was sufficient room for two adults and four children. We had a family ski boat at the time, and it came in handy for skiing, fishing, scuba diving for lobster and abalone, and cruising in the ocean, which was a couple hundred feet from our “house”. My brother Terry and I had a ball there, goofing off around the beach and shooting off any firecrackers that we could find. My Dad’s uncle Les also had a residence there, along with a fishing boat, and I got to go out with the serious anglers from time to time.
The toll highway from Tijuana to Ensenada hadn’t been built back in the Fifties, so the 104-mile drive was made over lousy, narrow roads in dicey areas. We had to climb up over a mountain on the way, typically in the fog at night, as we would usually do the trip down from Los Angeles in the afternoon after my Dad got off from work. Once, we came upon a grisly auto accident on that mountain pass, found some bloody survivors, and we took one of them with us to a hospital in Tijuana.
The Tijuana-Ensenada corridor was pretty seedy then: lots of run-down dwellings, the ever-present odor of sewage, and roads with lots of potholes. Tijuana, back in the Fifties, was kind of an “anything goes” playground for young folks and American soldiers stationed in San Diego and Oceanside. Needless to say, my Dad always got us through Tijuana as quickly as possible to avoid auto accidents and crooked police officers.
The border crossing at San Ysidro was interesting to me, as a kid, because crossing the border going south involved passing a Federale official sitting in a folding chair, usually taking a nap. Coming back north, crossing the border, involved a large traffic jam where Mexican vendors would walk alongside cars hawking souvenirs and U.S. Border Patrol officials would give your car and passengers the once-over with minimal fuss. They were generally looking for contraband like fireworks and illegals hiding in the car trunk. Drugs were not a problem back then.
I think my parents sold that beach house in the late Sixties. The trailer park property was later leveled to make space for the Autonomous University of Baja California and a very nice seaside restaurant (Punta Morro).
In the early years of our marriage, Charlie and I visited Tijuana, Rosarito Beach, and Ensenada on numerous occasions to eat, drink, and shop. We took the boys down to Estero Beach (south of Ensenada) to do some beach camping with my brother Terry and his family. One of the fun things to do when visiting that area was to see “La Bufadora”, which is a famous blowhole located on a rocky point jutting out into the ocean (and where my Dad almost died many years earlier when scuba diving at that spot!).
By that time, the toll highway was in place and made the trip a breeze. I recall a fishing trip down to Ensenada that I made with some buddies one time. We got eaten alive by mosquitoes while sleeping on the beach, caught a lot of yellowtail, and stopped at a bar on the way north which was infested with prostitutes. One of my friends, who got chummy with one of the girls in a restroom, got a very itchy souvenir that day, if you follow me. HaHa.
We’ve visited Rosarito Beach numerous times for shopping (lots of great pottery, furniture, and yard art) and eating. Our favorite restaurant was called El Nido: great food, good service, very interesting décor.
For a while, Charlie and I and friends would make the trip south from Southern California to Puerto Nuevo (just south of Rosarito) to enjoy the famous lobster dinners. Originally (back in the early days with my parents) the place consisted of a couple of restaurants serving nice-sized lobsters. However, as time went on, Puerto Nuevo became overrun by many lobster restaurants and the lobsters got smaller and smaller and the price got more expensive. We finally gave up on the place.
Years later, we discovered a golf resort south of Rosarito Beach called “Bajamar” where we had some great times with some of our neighbor friends from Bear Creek. A portion of the golf course is located along the rocky shoreline, with four spectacular holes that would rival Pebble Beach at a fraction of the cost.
Charlie and I have been to Ensenada many times over the years by car and cruise ship. It has grown into a very large city, it’s a major port, and the downtown area where tourists go has become quite respectable. There are lots of good places to eat and drink. Hussong’s Cantina is a famous dive where you can get an overpriced cerveza. Our favorite restaurant is El Rey Sol, which is an elegant place serving a French cuisine.
The last time I drove the coastal highway south of Tijuana was on a golf trip to Bajamar with some buddies. We had a great time, but the trip was spoiled coming back to the U.S. when a Mexican cop braced us near the border for a $100 bribe, which we paid to get the hell away from him. By that time, the border crossing at San Ysidro had become a massive circus, what with the thousands of cars, thousands of vendors pestering the in-line drivers, and the increased security. The crossing now took at least an hour. So, that was the last time I drove a car south along the toll highway into Baja.
For a time, Charlie and I (and friends) used to do some short vacations down in San Felipe, which is a small fishing town at the northernmost point of the Gulf of California. To get there, one must drive south from Mexicali about 200 miles through a very desolate desert, with military checkpoints every so often to discourage local bandidos. The trek is comparable to driving the length of Death Valley… and then another 60 miles.
San Felipe reminded me of Ensenada back in the Fifties: a few restaurants, several bars, no crowds, cheap prices, and laid-back attitude. Our favorite nightclub was called the “Rockadile”, where they played loud rock and roll music, and the place featured an indoor sand volleyball court where drunken patrons would blow off steam. Another cool place in town was an open-air enclave of taco joints where the lunch special was several street tacos and a Pacifico beer for one dollar, and that included all of the chips and guacamole that one could eat. We would spend a whole afternoon there, eating and listening to Mariachi music. Just down the street, there was a bar with one of those automated bulls that daredevils could attempt to ride. I tried and failed.
On one San Felipe trip, our group of neer-do-wells decided to participate in the annual Pete’s Camp off-road 50K poker run in the desert. We drove in our friend’s Jeep 4×4 and trashed it but had a fabulous time, particularly at the 25K point where there was a giant marlin barbeque, free beer, and a wet tee shirt contest for the thousands of shit-faced participants.
Over the years, I did a lot of fishing down in Baja waters. My brother and I got started with day trips out of San Diego to catch albacore and yellowtail. Then, we graduated to 3-5 day trips to Guadalupe Island, which is probably the Great White Shark capital of the West Coast. The waters around this island are infested with big fish, seals, and big sharks. It was not uncommon to hook a fish, have that grabbed by a seal, and then watch the seal be brutalized by a huge shark. I can recall one time when I was fishing along the rail when a Great White, that had to be fifteen feet long, cruised just under the surface about five feet from me: awesome!
We later upped the fishing ante by taking 8-day trips on the deluxe Excel fishing boat (125’ long, 32’ wide, deluxe cabins, only 28 fishermen) to do stand-up fishing for bluefin, yellowfin, and albacore tuna, yellowtail, dorado, and wahoo. It was expensive but an adventure, fishing the famous Alijos Rocks, volcanic pinnacles which are about 180 miles offshore and 500 miles south of San Diego. My favorite parts were fishing for squid (bait) at night, bottom fishing for huge Yellowtail, and “kite fishing” for large tuna.
My brother Terry, my friend Ken Mohr, and I took a bunch of those trips. On one of them, we were returning home to San Diego when the captain came on the intercom and informed the fishermen that the Twin Towers in New York had just been attacked. On the way into San Diego harbor (a major Navy port) we were boarded and searched by Seals. It was a very sobering moment.
On other trips, my brother and I fished at La Paz (for Dorado; i.e. Mahi Mahi) and at Punta Colorada, which is a fishing camp midway between La Paz and Cabo San Lucas. That part of the Sea of Cortez used to be a world famous fishery, but illegal trawling in the area by the Chinese has decimated the stocks of game fish. We caught a few fish in Punta Colorada, but were not successful in finding many Roosterfish, which are said to abound there. My brother Terry caught a small (100 pound) Marlin by accident.
On another trip, we fished out of Cabo San Lucas for tuna but had little success. I caught a bull Dorado while trolling on the way back to the harbor; it was a monster. The highlight of that Cabo trip was driving ATV’s in the sand dune complex just north of town. Terry and I got to racing through the dunes and desert, going faster and faster, until I flipped my rig and got crushed by it. I was damned lucky to survive that wreck; my pelvis was black and blue for a month. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?
Speaking of Cabo San Lucas, I have been there many times, and it has really changed over the years. Initially, it was a sleepy fishing port where American anglers would attempt to land huge Black and Striped Marlin in famous billfishing tournaments. There was a small harbor adjacent to a small, dusty town with several restaurants and bars. I liked it then. Nowadays, there’s a big city, a big harbor, lots of pricey eateries and watering holes, and cruise ships unloading thousands of tourists each week. It’s now as American as San Diego… very touristy.
Years ago, Charlie and I and some friends stayed for a week at Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach, which is a high-end timeshare resort located on the coast a few miles west of Cabo city. It was gorgeous there; however, it was on a hillside, and it required a golf cart taxi to get around. It also had a signature Jack Nicklaus golf course on the grounds (very pricey and always windy), along with a high-end restaurant which we frequented.
Charlie and I have taken many “Mexican Riviera” cruises on different ships over the decades, and they all stop in Cabo. Probably the most fun one can have there is ATVing the sand dunes and paddling a canoe out to the big arched rock called El Arco. On one cruise, with our grandson Craig, he and I jet skied out of Playa Medano… it was a lot of fun.
I first visited Mazatlan about 40 years ago when I went fishing down there with some friends. It was a much smaller metropolis back then and the touristy attractions were all located in the “Zona Dorada” and adjacent to the Malecon… where the original Senor Frog’s was located. Of course, everyone went there to get drunk, dance on tabletops to loud rock and roll, and act like fools. Lots of fun.
Over the years, Charlie and I took several cruises that stopped in Mazatlan and some other trips where we flew down there for a week on the beach. It was always fun, particularly riding around town in the “pulmonia” open-air taxis. They are modified VW “Thing” vehicles with custom horns that honk out playful sounds like La Cucaracha, Oooogah, Wolf Whistle, and such, and also blare loud rock and roll tunes.
We visited Mazatlan one time with friends who owned a timeshare at Pueblo Bonito Mazatlan near the Zona Dorada. It was very fancy and had a great beach full of walking vendors, parachute rides, and palapas where one could have lunch and drink Margaritas. We liked it and fell for the pitch… that we could shave $100 off our room bill if we attended a timeshare presentation. We fell for it and were driven out to Pueblo Bonito Emerald Bay, a sister resort owned by the same corporation. It was much fancier than P.B. Mazatlan, the facilities were new, and there were plans to build a Greg Norman golf course on the grounds. We fell for the pitch and purchased a “Junior” suite.
From that point on, we vacationed in Mazatlan every year at Emerald Bay, sometimes by ourselves, sometimes with family, and sometimes with our So Cal friends. At some point, two of those couples bought timeshares there and we proceeded to have a lot of good times over the years. We even upgraded our timeshare to a Presidential unit (two sleeping units) for two weeks per year. It was an extravagance, but we were making good money and enjoyed the hell out of our times down there.
One of the best things about Mazatlan is the food. It is a major seaport for commercial fishing and is just down the coast from Guaymas, which is the “shrimp capital” of Mexico. Over the many years that we vacationed in Mazatlan, we discovered many great restaurants. Our favorites are La Costa Marinera, Pancho’s, Panama, and Gus Y Gus (all near the Zona Dorada area) and Topolo and El Presidio Cocina in the historic “centro” area of downtown. Another fun thing to do, when you’re not sunbathing, eating, or drinking, is to rent a motorscooter and tool about throughout the exotic city. I’ve done it numerous times; always fun. Or, you can take a walk along the 13-mile paved Malecon walkway, which is perched on the seaside cliff above the crashing surf, like many locals do in the mornings and evenings.
It was in this area that our pulmonia driver stopped the taxi one evening on the way home from dinner in downtown… to show us hundreds of raccoons that had come up from the riverbed adjacent to the street to beg for foodscraps. They were fairly polite, for raccoons, and patiently waited for the bits of bread leftovers that we had on hand. It was one of the most unusual sights that I’d ever seen.
Puerto Vallarta is typically the southernmost port of call for Mexican Riviera cruise ships out of Los Angeles. We’ve been there quite a few times and its always memorable. While Mazatlan is sub-tropical, “P.V.” is tropical, with all manner of palm trees, parrots, and steep, forested slopes that go up a thousand feet or so from the shoreline. The streets are cobbled and the town center area is chock full of great shops and restaurants. There is also a very beautiful area along the Rio Cuale (in the middle of town) with nice restaurants and views… it’s called the Romantic Zone. The central downtown environment is focused on the large church (with a crown on top) which dominates the space.
My grandson Craig and I, while on a cruise visiting Puerta Vallarta, experienced an excursion called the “Great Adventure”. We hopped on a Zodiac boat at the wharf, drove about 30 minutes across the bay at high speed, disembarked at the tiny, indigenous village of Yelapa, loaded into military-type trucks, drove up the steep mountain into the lush forest, and rode donkeys the rest of the way to the mountaintop. Then, we zip-lined all the way down the mountain (perhaps ten long zip routes), belayed ourselves down a good-sized waterfall and then a 100’ drop from the forest canopy, and finished the trip with a slide down a water-filled chute. Quite the adventure: Craig loved it.
On another cruise (through the Panama Canal), Charlie and I stopped in Acapulco. We explored the town, saw the famous La Quebrada cliff divers, and did some shopping. That night, we enjoyed our 25th wedding anniversary at a spectacular restaurant up on a hill overlooking the bay with all of the twinkling lights of the city. It was magical.
Charlie and I have been lucky to have enjoyed lots of cruises in the Caribbean. We’ve been just about everywhere in that pond, including many stops in Mexico.
In fact, our very first cruise was on Royal Caribbean’s Song of Norway, which was the smallest cruise ship that we ever sailed and probably the classiest. One of our stops was Playa del Carmen, where we went ashore to take a bus tour to the Mayan pyramid in Tulum and, later, to the Xel-Ha lagoon for some snorkeling with fish, stingrays, and turtles.
Many years later, when the area had developed significantly, we spent some time at Tankah Bay (just north of Tulum) with son Jeff and wife Carol. It was a beautiful beach setting with coral reefs to explore, gorgeous sunsets looking out over the turquoise ocean, and numerous places in the village to enjoy the local cuisine.
We have enjoyed Cancun a number of times, as cruise ships often anchor there. It has become a crowded, pretty wild place for young people to party. The nightclub scene is not really our thing, as we tend to like to enjoy cocktails from a seat in a swim-up bar and consider our options for dinner that evening.
Our favorite place in Cancun, by far, is a place downtown called La Habichuela. It doesn’t look like much from the street but, WOW!, when you enter the place your jaw drops from the beauty and classy setting. The food is GREAT. I recommend that joint to anyone who visits Cancun and has the nerve to leave the tourist zone and drive into the downtown area. Maybe the best restaurant that I’ve ever patronized.
We visited Cancun once with my Mom and sisters while on a cruise. Charlie and my sisters decided to “swim with the dolphins” (they had a great time) while my Mom and I did some shopping and I took her out to lunch. It was a special time for us. On the way back to the ship, a severe thunderstorm swept into Cancun, the likes of which I’ve never seen. It rained so hard that you could hardly see through the falling water. After sheltering in a shop, and debating what we should do, it was decided that we would make a run for the ship down the quarter-mile pier. We did that and got drenched to the bone before stepping onto the gangplank. That frantic run was even the more impressive because my Mom was in her Eighties at the time.
During a trip to Cancun once with son Jeff and wife Carol, we drove our rental vehicle the couple of hundred miles west into the Yucatan rainforest to the ancient Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza. We stayed at the Mayaland Hotel, which is located on the national park property, and it was very nice. The next day, we explored the World Heritage Site… it was awesome, one of the coolest places I’ve ever visited.
Later, we visited several of the cenotes (underground water-filled caves) that abound in this part of the Yucatan. Probably the most scenic is the cenote Ik Kil where, I believe, Jeff and Carol swam and dove in the crystal clear water. Overall, the trip to Chichen Itza was a 10+.
Probably the most spectacular trip to Mexico that we ever took was unplanned. We were both working hard and needed to “get away”, but only could spare 5 days. I got a local travel agent to come up with a plan and she suggested Mexico City. I was not amused, as I had heard that it was very smoggy and crowded (20 million people and 20 million VW’s). She talked us into it and off we went. We stayed at the luxury hotel Camino Real located adjacent to Chapultepec Park, which would be Mexico’s version of N.Y.’s Central Park or the National Mall in Washington D.C. It’s a beautiful place populated by museums, walkways, statues and lakes. The most impressive attraction was the Museo Nacional de Antropologia which was every bit as impressive as the Smithsonian in D.C. We loved it.
By accident, we met a taxi driver who was also a licensed tour guide, and we hired him for two days to take us “wherever he wanted” in the sprawling city. He proceeded to do just that while giving us a college-level lecture on the history and culture of Mexico. What a cool guy! We visited the Presidential Palace, the National Pawn Shop, the Floating Gardens of Xochimilco, the Aztec ruins of Tenochtitlan (Templo Mayor), and the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, among other places. And ate at restaurants that he enjoyed: the food was great.
On one of the days, our guide drove us out of the city to the ancient ruins of Teotihuacan. This place is the most impressive ancient city that I’ve ever seen. It is a huge complex of stone structures built by… no one knows!… and flourished from 300 B.C. to 500 A.D. There are two large pyramids that dominate the ruins along with many other sizable structures (possibly religious or governmental) flanking a broad, stone-paved boulevard. The Pyramid of the Sun is the largest pyramid in the world, with four times the volume of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. At the time I visited, it was permissible to climb up to the top of the structure, which I did along with hundreds of Mexican locals. It was very steep and difficult to climb; one wouldn’t want to stumble, for sure. The view from the top was magnificent!
On my list of most impressive sites that I’ve visited, Teotihuacan has to rank near the top with Venice (Italy), Toledo (Spain), the Alhambra (Spain), the Vatican (Italy), the Amalfi Coast (Italy), Pompei (Italy), Santorini (Greek Isles), and Yosemite National Park (U.S.).
In conclusion, I have immensely enjoyed my decades of travel in Old Mexico. Lots to beautiful things to see, fun things to do, and wonderful places to eat good food. Probably the best thing about Mexico is the people: they are friendly, helpful, fun, and intelligent. I can’t remember running into any “bad guys” down there in my 70 years of travel… except that gangster motorcycle cop at the San Ysidro border crossing many years ago. He had a family to feed, I guess.
I can hardly wait for our 50th anniversary trip to Zihuatanejo!!
Back in the 1950’s and early 1960’s when I was growing up, things were much simpler, particularly when it came to determining fact from fiction.
If President Eisenhower or Walter Cronkite said it, there was no doubt that it was true. The same went for doctors, teachers, and scientists Even people in the financial services sector were reliable: “If you can’t trust your banker, who can you trust?”
Of course, liars have always been with us, people like politicians, criminals, con men, televangelists, and the jokers who work on Madison Avenue. Does anyone besides me recall the Congressional testimony, under oath, by the tobacco industry back in the Fifties and Sixties that cigarettes absolutely DID NOT cause cancer? Or parents lying to their children about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny? “If you can’t believe Mom and Dad, who can you believe?”
And then the Digital Age arrived.
One would think that, with every scrap of human knowledge available on the Internet and readily available to all of humanity, the truth would be easily discerned. However, pretty much the opposite has occurred: there is so much misinformation floating about, eagerly passed on by “friends” and connivers, that everyone seems to be in the fog.
Shocking information (usually untrue) is the coin of the realm on social media and on some network “news” broadcasts and individual podcasts. Anything goes, including bald-faced lies, when it comes to obtaining Facebook “likes” or YouTube clicks. No one seems to care if an assertion is valid, conspiracy theories abound, and a situation has developed where many people trust no one.
A disturbing phenomenon that has emerged in the 21st century is the effort by demagogues to delegitimize aspects of American culture like education, science, democratic elections, foreign relations, and civility.
History teachers in some school districts have been warned not to discuss the institution of slavery in America. In some cases, textbooks have been “whitewashed” to skirt uncomfortable historical facts, while in some Southern states children are taught that “States’ rights” and “honor” were the real reason that the Confederacy was born. Similarly, the genocide of indigenous peoples in North America is similarly, by policy, soft-pedaled. In some States, curriculum steers students toward the belief that “White people” are solely responsible for making America great. And sex education is anathema to Bible Belt school boards.
Home schooling is increasing in popularity, as many parents distrust the motives of professional teachers, typically for religious and political reasons. “Can’t trust those pointy-headed intellectuals!”
Scientists, our searchers for truth, have become vilified by demagogues because some scientific findings run contrary to popular political party dogma on such topics as epidemiology, vaccines, climate change, evolution, and religion.
Conspiracy theories, absent facts, have caused millions of Americans to distrust the electoral process. Ex-President Trump, all by himself, has knee-capped the belief that elections are fair and accurate… despite the fact that recent elections have been found (by Democratic and Republican states, alike) to be virtually free of any fraud. Despite that evidence, and the fact that Trump lost by 7 million votes in 2020, a large portion of Republicans voters still assert (in 2023) that the election was “stolen”.
Our elected politicians, for the past several decades, have delegitimized the democracy they serve by acting like school kids shooting spitwads when they should be working together for the benefit of the citizenry. Both political parties have participated in gerrymandering political maps so that they have an advantage over the opposition. Political parties in some states have instituted laws to disenfranchise otherwise eligible voters by making it very difficult for them to vote.
We have become a democracy that, somehow, detests democracy.
The United States likes to think of itself as “the greatest Nation in the World”. However, we have stopped being great, at least in comparison to our previous version.
In the past, America sided with democracies against tyrants, treated our economic trade partners with respect, and supported our military allies in peace and in wartime. In recent years, we have insulted our allies, slapped tariffs on goods imported from trade partners, and made laudatory comments (during the Trump Administration) about dictators in Russia, China, North Korea, the Philippines, and Turkey.
We have squandered a half century of goodwill around the world, angered former friends, and created new enemies, particularly in Muslim countries.
What does the world think of the United States? Does it matter?
The recent coronavirus pandemic is an interesting case study. When the crap began to hit the fan in early 2020, most nations treated it seriously, imposing travel restrictions, masking, quarantines, and business shutdowns to halt the spread of the disease. No one knew the lethality of the new virus and they didn’t want to take chances. Not so in the United States, where some conspiracy theorists (who had the ear of the President) pooh-poohed Covid-19, the government was slow-footed in response, and great political debate and violent protests ensued when State and local governments tried to contain the spread of the virus. The President, his close White House advisors, and Republican politicians elected to downplay the danger, refused to wear facemasks, and blamed the pandemic on the Chinese. They delegitimized science and America’s trust in doctors.
While the American ostrich hid his head in the sand, the scourge was contained in most countries, and the U.S. went on to suffer the most Covid-19 cases and deaths of any country. Almost 1.2 million Americans died from Covid-19, while India (the most populous Nation with five times the population of the U.S.) had half as many fatalities from the virus.
Not a good showing at all for the supposed “Greatest Nation on Earth”.
It is a shame that, in this terrifying emergency, our leaders chose to believe and act on crackpot advice rather than the suggestions of professional epidemiologists. Even now, with the emergency fading into the rear-view window, our Nation is caught up in political finger-pointing rather than learning from our mistakes. With vaccines now available for Covid-19, there are still millions of Americans who will not take them… sort of a solidarity test for macho men and conspiracy nutjobs.
How can the United States be considered “great” when it is heavily populated by citizens and leaders who don’t want to accept facts but who’d rather live in an alternate, “fake” reality that they choose to believe in?
Interestingly, our former President is now caught up in a nightmarish legal cobweb (of his own making) involving several State and Federal prosecutions, each of which involves lying to achieve political or personal financial objectives. There are serious crimes involved, with lots of factual evidence at prosecutors disposal. Not surprisingly, our ex-President has decided that his best option is to loudly delegitimize the courts, the judges, the prosecutors, the witnesses, and in some cases, the grand juries that brought the charges… in essence, trashing the rule of law in America. All of the cases, in all the various jurisdictions, are simply a “witch hunts”, according to the head of the Trump cult.
Lots of great empires have existed in world history and all of them have eventually faded out. The American “empire” of the past couple of hundred years will follow suit, sooner rather than later, particularly if it decides to put its stock in beliefs rather than facts.
“Faith: not wanting to know what is true” (Frederich Nietzsche)
The recent Gaza/Israel drama is but the latest case of bloodletting atrocities in the Middle East… a serial fracas that has been going on for about 2,500 years.
For those who believe in the Bible, God gave the Hebrews the green light to violently take Palestinian lands from the long-time occupants of that area and even assisted Joshua and his armies in the task. (Curiously, the Commandments that “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s property” and “Thou shalt not steal” were ignored by God and his holy warriors.)
Historically, the seizure of the those “promised lands” probably didn’t occur as portrayed in the Biblical myth. However, in Judaism, the faithful cling to this fanciful tale as a bedrock of belief and entitlement.
There was, obviously, a significant presence of Jews in Palestine by the 6th century B.C. because that was the period where Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II’s army wiped out the small Hebrew kingdom of Judah, obliterated King Solomon’s temple, and sent approximately 10,000 Jews off to exile in Babylon.
So much for the “promised land”.
Later, under the Persian leader Cyrus the Great, Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem and were allowed to build the Second Temple on the site of the original temple. That edifice stood for about 500 years until the Roman Empire got fed up with the rebellious Jews in Palestine, brutally beat them into submission, leveled the Second Temple “so that no stone remained standing”, and forced a large portion of the Jewish population to flee to other Mediterranean/European countries. That exile or voluntary migration of Jews out of the Holy Lands is known as the “diaspora” and explains how so many Jews ended up in countries such as Spain, France, Germany, Poland and Russia.
Again, so much for the “promised land”.
Eventually, the Roman Empire died out, Muslim Arabs came to wield power in the Middle East, and relatively few Jews remained in Palestine. The Catholic Church, under Pope Urban II in 1095, ignited a series of military campaigns to wrest control of the Holy Lands from Muslim control. The several “crusades” continued for a couple hundred years with Islamic forces eventually driving out the European invaders.
Once again, the God of Abraham had, seemingly, supported the attempted theft of Palestinian lands and… had failed once more. Importantly, Muslims throughout the Middle East were angered by this action and carry the resentment to this day. “Why does everyone want to take our lands from us?”
The Middle Ages in Europe were rough on the immigrant Jews who had settled there, as the various nations were heavily Catholic, and their leaders developed a very cruel antisemitism which relegated Jews to the very bottom level of society. Jews were blamed for all manner of problems (including causing the Plague, stealing babies and drinking their blood, and undercutting the economy through lending practices) and were often segregated from society into ghettoes.
This was the situation when Adolph Hitler (a staunch Catholic) rose to power chiefly on his White Nationalist (Nazi) objective of purifying the German nation of Jewish people. For about ten years, under the Third Reich, Hitler’s Nazis ran a genocide program in Germany and countries captured during World War II, resulting in the extermination of about 6 million European Jews.
When the war was ended, the victorious Allies realized the full extent of the horror (now known as the “Holocaust”) and they felt shame and embarrassment that so-called “Christians” had engineered this holy terror against Jews.
Perhaps as some sort of apology to the Jews (or perhaps to remove many of the survivors from Europe itself, as antisemitism still lingered in the Christian population), the Western powers came up with the brilliant idea to “give” the Jews their own homeland, where they could live and worship as they pleased.
Unfortunately, their plan involved superimposing a new Nation over Palestinian lands that had been occupied by Muslim Arabs for twelve hundred years. The Jewish nation of Israel was founded in 1948, whereupon (the very day after the new nation was founded) all neighboring Arabic nations went to war with Israel.
Luckily for Israel, its antagonists were not very skilled militarily and the new nation survived. There have been numerous other wars and skirmishes over the ensuing 75 years. The most recent edition, the Hamas’ terrorist attack of Israel from neighboring Gaza and Israel’s brutal military response, continues unabated as of this writing.
There can be no happy ending to this story. The nation of Israel is the “last stand” of Jews: they were “promised” this land by God and (later) the United Nations, they have a strong military with nuclear weapons, and they will fight to the death to protect their nation. On the flip side, Muslims throughout the Middle East resent the Jewish “trespassers” who control the holy city of Jerusalem. The existence of Israel is akin to a boil on the ass of Islam, and the surrounding Muslim nations will not be happy until that festering sore is removed.
Unfortunately for Israel and the rest of the world, several of its Middle Eastern neighbors have oodles of petroleum-derived money and give generously to terrorist groups like Hamas who like to torment the Jewish state and its allies. The 9/11 attack on targets in America was carried out by another Muslim terrorist group (Al Queda) with ties to the oil-rich Saudi monarchy.
Rinse and repeat.
The most we can hope for in the recent Gaza conflict is that it doesn’t metastasize into a regional or worldwide conflict. World War I was triggered by an assassin’s bullet in an obscure Balkan country. It would be a shame if a local terrorist act brought some major actors into play. The United States, a close ally of Israel, is trying to head off any escalation of the conflict by stationing an aircraft carrier in nearby Mediterranean waters. This should discourage the theocracy in Iran from getting its hands any dirtier than they already are.
The whole mess is like a cafeteria food fight that never ends.
Everybody gets to meet the Grim Reaper when it’s time.
Hopefully, the deceased was lucky to have enjoyed a very full and rewarding life surrounded by relatives and friends who loved him. The most one can hope for is that the final reckoning will not have been preceded by months or years of physical wasting and pain.
My father was one of those very lucky people who appeared healthy but simply died in his sleep one night (heart attack?) curled up around my mom. They call this benevolent passing a “King’s Death” because the victim doesn’t suffer, and his loved ones are spared the heart-wrenching drama of watching a human being withering away in pain.
How can I order up one of those King’s Deaths?
A few States allow euthanasia (i.e. legal suicide) for those doomed folks who are terminally sick and in miserable condition. It seems to me that this is the right thing to do when appropriate. Who knows better than the patient the level of misery that he is enduring? When there is no hope on the horizon, and life is not fun anymore, shouldn’t it be his call on the time and manner of death?
Why not? Why should some doctor, lawyer, politician, or priest make these decisions for people they hardly know?
I raise this morbid subject today because I have a close friend/neighbor who is very depressed by a mystery ailment that has reduced his life to lying in bed or sitting in a reclining chair waiting for the next horrible spell of dizziness and vertigo. We go for a short walk each morning (his medical condition allowing) and every day he mentions the prospect of suicide because, “I can’t stand living like this. It’s not living.”
I agree.
My friend, who recently turned 70 years old, has lived a very full and rewarding life. He’s had a good marriage, sired some fine children, and enjoyed a long and fulfilling career. He’s been retired for fifteen years and has taken that opportunity to hike in the mountains, play guitar and sing at community events, and ride his bike long distances. He loves the outdoors, or at least he did before his medical condition precluded him from driving a car, riding a bike, or hiking in the local mountains. He loves music but can’t sit in an upright chair for any length of time.
He can’t do anything anymore except lay about his home waiting for the onslaught of another dizzy/vertigo spell. Doctors have been unable to diagnose his problem or afford him medical help. It is a crappy way to end the very fine life he has lived.
On our walks each day, he always brings up the subject of suicide. Today, he wondered aloud if there was any way he could get ahold of fentanyl… so he could self-administer a King’s Death.
Jeez, I know this friend of mine is miserable and super-depressed and resigned to leaving this mortal coil before he is shuffled off to a hospice facility to wither away. But should I (or any of his other true friends) help in any way? It would probably be the truest test of friendship, but such “assistance” might produce some heavy guilt down the road. And/or a legal problem, to boot.
I think that he and his wife need to work together on this project when it comes to that.
I’m almost 76 years young now and, certainly, my life is also winding down. I’m still relatively healthy but I can no longer do most of the things that used to “float my boat” like running, golfing, bowling, riding a horse, surfing, playing pool, and skiing. The loss of coordination and strength has really become evident during the past ten years.
Gee, it was only eight years ago that I shot in the 70’s in golf and bowled a couple of 300 games, and maybe five years ago that I climbed Mt. Whitney. Nowadays, I must satisfy myself with short hikes, walking the dogs, traveling in my RV, and doing my blog.
Low energy activities for a low energy guy.
But at least I am not suffering from some depressing physical malady or two. My poor wife Charlie has all manner of medical issues and needs to take a couple of dozen pills a day just to function. I don’t know how she does it. She’s got some major stomach surgery coming up in 30 days, the poor gal.
Who knows how long we have ‘til the End of the Line? My mom lived to almost 89 and her mom lived to 90, I believe. All of my three siblings are still alive and kicking. All of Charlie’s siblings are still alive and relatively well and her mom lived into her 80’s. We could live that long.
Neither one of us wants to live to be an old fossil who drools all day and can’t remember what he had for breakfast. My mom was a wreck when she died; it was very sad.
Charlie and I are celebrating our 50th year together this year. We’ve had a great life together, enjoyed fulfilling careers, seen the world, raised four fine sons, and had great times with interesting people that we’ve met. We are now living comfortably in retirement, enjoying the hell out of our home and our three Boston Terrier dogs.
Whenever the time comes for either or both of us, we will have lived and loved, enjoyed our time to the fullest, and maybe left this world a bit better off.
I hope my friend can find the peace that he needs and deserves.
Charlie and I watch a lot of crime docudramas on TV which draw attention to the (unfortunately) ugly underbelly of American society.
Suspects and perpetrators of crimes who are brought “down to headquarters” to be interviewed/interrogated often reveal their ignorance of proper English. Typically, the grammar-challenged citizens are urban street people, druggies, thieves, and gang members, but rural America’s redneck population is well-represented, too. Lot’s of horrible crimes are committed in the Bible Belt by God-fearing White folks. Opioid addiction is big there, and leads to lots of robberies and break-ins. Marital discord also leads to crimes of violence.
One common denominator in this sub-set of society is poverty. Most of the folks who end up at the police station are desperate people who have resorted to desperate measures to feed themselves and their families or to satisfy their drug habit. The other commonality of this group of neer-do-wells is limited education. Whether they lacked educational opportunity or misused that which they were given is unknown, but it seems that most of these miscreants weren’t paying much attention in English class.
Here are a few gems from a sample of police interrogations:
“I ain’t did that!”
“Somebody dead and killed was there…”
“Her and her Mom”
“Nobody had no gun”
“They done went…”
“We might could get…”
“No one has came forward” (a police officer said this!)
“I been got rid of that car”
“I been knowin’ him for five years”
“Don’t nobody have a key to my car”
“He was him”
“He ain’t want to go”
“Everyone knowed each other”
I can imagine one of these citizens, who wants to straighten out his life, going to a job interview, speaking this kind of bastardized English, and being shown the door… because hiring the individual would bring ridicule on the company.
Sure, the guy might be hired as a janitor or dishwasher, something in the back end of the business where he won’t be seen by the public. But is that kind of job really going to raise the fellow “up by the bootstraps’? Probably not; he’d still have to commit crimes after work hours to feed his family and pay the bills.
In the inner city neighborhoods and redneck boondocks that produce illiterate citizens like this, I wonder how much admonition is given by teachers to students about “talking stupid” and how that is going to minimize opportunity down the road of life. First impressions are critical in social intercourse, and someone who expresses themselves in crude English (be it “country talk”, “Ebonics”, “Spanglish” or whatever) basically paints a Scarlett Letter on their forehead revealing the bearer to be a non-serious person.
Of course, in the “hood” or out in the “boonies”, talking like this is probably necessary to gain “cred” among the low-life, criminal set. A guy speaking the King’s English would probably mark himself as an undercover cop or, at least, not a serious player in the criminal community. He would be suspect, for sure.
A fellow who has served prison time and plans on toeing the line after release is, unfortunately, going to be bringing his crude language skills with him when he re-enters society and tries to better himself.
Anything more than menial work/manual labor will be almost impossible to achieve without going back to school to… re-learn the things that he determined weren’t worth the bother back in grade school. That’s a tough row to hoe, and is one of the reasons that recidivism (felons returning to criminal activity) is so high.
There has never been a time in my adult life that I have been more disgusted at national politics, with each day revealing more about the disfunctional mess we have in Washington D.C.
We’ve got legislators who are so old that they have a hard time putting cogent thoughts together, standing up, or keeping out of the hospital. Senator Dianne Feinstein recently died at age 90 and… cast a vote in the Senate the day she died. Nancy Pelosi, the ex-Speaker of the House and still a Congresswoman from California, is 83-years-old and … running again for Congress! Republican Minority Leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, who is a spry 81-year-old fuddy duddy, has recently experienced “freezing up” (on several occasions) while making a public statement. Just as well, as what he was about to say was probably stupid.
They are but a few of the couple dozen Representatives and Senators who are more than 80-years-old. Well meaning people, I’m sure, but most of them would be better off (as would the Nation) if they traded in their D.C. perks for shuffleboard at the local Senior center or “greeter” jobs at Walmart.
What is it about OLD politicians hanging on to the Federal gravy train until they are too decrepit to get out of bed? How about giving the younger folks a chance to fuck up the Nation? Why are we potentially looking at two old farts (Biden and Trump) running for President again in 2024? Biden seems confused and stumbles a lot, while Trump says so many stupid things that it’s obvious that his brain is totally mush.
Can’t we just put them out to pasture? Help us, Jesus!
Seriously, isn’t Mister Magoo available??
Of course, it’s not just the old fogies who are doing their best to screw up our democracy. As in most years, American voters, in their wisdom, have put into office a slew of totally useless “legislators” whose primary objective in D.C. is to get rich off of lobbyists and make damn fools of themselves any time they see a camera or someone puts a microphone in front of their face. It’s a fucking clown show, each day producing another elected imbecile saying or doing ridiculous things just to get attention while spending zero time actually trying to solve the Nation’s problems. Legislators, who are there to address critical problems though the development of laws and approval of budgets, spend most of their day shooting spitwads at each other in the Capitol.
Bozo would fit into the troupe.
How about Congressman George Santos of New York? He’s the gay guy (who dresses in drag in his spare time) who hasn’t told one truth since he campaigned for office. Everything about him is a lie (he’s a Trump “mini me”) and he has recently been indicted for all manner of fraudulent fundraising, theft, and misrepresentation. He should have been expelled from the House months ago, but his Republican vote is more important to Congressional leadership than the shame he brings on the institution.
Have you heard about Congresswoman Lauren Boebert of Colorado? She’s a legislator who is often on TV invariably spouting right-wing nonsense, heckling the President at his State of the Union Address, and advancing pro-gun and anti-vaccine initiatives. She recently embarrassed herself by: (1) Attending a playhouse presentation of “Beetlejuice” where she vaped, which is prohibited in the theater; (2) chewed out in coarse language a patron who complained; (3) loudly sang during the performance; (4) groped her date’s junk during the performance while he manually checked out her melons; (5) got thrown out of the theater by management while shouting “Don’t you know who I am?!”; (6) Denied any inappropriate behavior until in-theater video surveillance caught her in the lie; (7) then minimized her actions by stating that the incident was a “lapse in judgment” that didn’t represent her “moral values”. Interestingly, Congresswoman Beobert makes a political living by complaining that America’s “family values” are going down the toilet. She should know.
Oh, boy, Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, seems to have slimed his way to the top of the D.C. swamp! He’s currently under indictment for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and gold bars as bribes (“No way! In our Nation’s capital?) and for acting as a paid agent of the Egyptian government. Should he step down? Of course. Will he? Not a chance while there’s still opportunity for another grift.
Speaking about another shameless grifter who should relinquish his Federal job, how about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas? This judge, who enjoys a LIFETIME appointment to the highest court in the land, and who is the most extreme, far right “Conservative” on the Court, has been exposed as a puppet directed by some of his uber rich Republican donors. He’s enjoyed lavish trips at home and abroad, courtesy of these billionaire political manipulators. He’s either too stupid to understand or just plain corrupt. His wife, by the way, is an EXTREME right-wing operative who was intimately involved in Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” movement which culminated in the Capitol Riot. This married couple will leave a lasting stain on democracy in our Nation.
This past week has found America somewhat absorbed in the drama around choosing a Speaker of the House of Representatives, a politician who will be second in line to the President should the Geezer in Chief expire while in office.
Astoundingly, the primary contestants for the job are are “stolen election” Trump sycophants, corrupt politicians who helped, or at least looked the other way, when the 2021 insurrection went down. Why our Congress should be led by individuals who actively worked to engineer a bloodless coup (which turned out not to be bloodless) to “correct” the will of the people… is a mystery to me. Did these individuals (along with an additional 140 plus Republican Congressmen) even read their oath of office after being elected? As I recall, their job was to “support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic”, which would presumably include giving no support to the lynch mob that ransacked our Capitol Building on January 6, 2021.
Almost three years after that shameful episode in American history, about half of Republican Party elected officials in Washington D.C. will not admit publicly that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. Why, when the whole world knows the truth? Because the ex-President has their testicles in his mitts, and he knows how and when to squeeze (as in… there is an election coming in 2024). “Play ball or I’ll primary you!”
The fight for the Speaker of the House job (what imbecile would want such a post with the Democrats controlling the Senate and the White House?) has deteriorated into a Republican intra-Party mudwrestling match, further demonstrating that the G.O.P. has gone completely off the rails thanks to the toxic “campaign” that Trump is conducting to bully Republicans in general and poison jury pools selected to evaluate and cast judgment on the ex-President’s nefarious activities.
Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio is the latest nominee of the G.O.P. to lead the House. He’s having difficulty corralling the votes, probably because he is one of the most divisive and destructive politicians in Washington D.C., a guy who was intimately involved in the Capitol Riot machinations and remains a dedicated Trumpist to this day. Jordan is uniquely unsuited to the job he seeks, as the Speaker is the guy who is supposed to work with both political parties to craft legislation that is acceptable to all Americans. Congressman Jordan is not “into” that kind of governing; he’s a wrecking ball kind-of-guy, not a diplomat carrying an olive branch. If he is elected Speaker, the D.C. shit show will get markedly worse in the coming year.
Send in the clowns.
Jordan may not be able to get the votes he needs, as every Democrat will oppose his candidacy and maybe a dozen of his Republican brethren don’t like the cut of his jib. He may be able to bribe a half dozen of the holdouts with juicy perks and assignments (should he be elected), but if even five of the holdouts continue to hold their nose, Jordan’s campaign is toast.
Then what?
Probably some schmuck who no one has heard of will get stuck with the thankless job. Most likely it will be one of the 147 “stolen election” idiots who continue to kiss Trump’s ring, but a Congressman who has been less divisive than pitbull Jim Jordan.
That would rule out Republican flotsam such as Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene, a raging “Karen” who embarrasses herself each day by spewing Q Anon nonsense and Florida’s Matt Gaetz, a nincompoop of the highest order that no one in D.C.(except Donald Trump) can abide. And, of course, whack jobs like Paul Gosar of Arizona and Chip Roy of Texas, who daily embarrass themselves and the Nation with idiotic public statements that seem to be lifted directly from Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”.
We don’t need Nazis or skinheads crafting national policy, thank you.
There has been some mention of giving the Speaker job to (drum roll, please!) the ex-President himself. It would be perfectly legal to do so, as long as the votes are there. The Democrats might consider helping out, as it would put the 2024 campaigner in the public spotlight, further revealing his ineptness in all manners governmental. Between his many serious legal battles (in D.C., Georgia, New York and Florida) and the Speaker’s job, the self-avowed “smartest man in any room” would be kept pretty busy.
I say, “Send in that clown!”, he loves humiliation.
I had cataract surgery on both of my eyes over the past couple of weeks.
This was something that my Walmart optician recommended when I completed my annual eye exam in September. This was similar to the advice that I got from the previous Walmart optician last year, which I ignored because we were leaving town for 3 months.
Both opticians recommended the same ophthalmologist: Dr. Snow Slade of St. George, Utah. (I’m sure they get a kick-back for each referral.) Dr. Slade is the same guy who did Charlie’s cataract surgeries, and she was very impressed with him.
Dr. Slade examined me and recommended that I get the generic lens replacement in my right eye (100 percent covered by Medicare and my secondary insurance) and a fancier lens for my left eye (a Torric model that cost us $1,600). The surgeon told me that, after the two operations, I would see everything at a distance well but might need “cheater” glasses for reading stuff on my computer and cell phone.
“Sign me up!”, I said.
Doctor Slade does many of these each surgeries each day in a highly-choreographed “assembly line” fashion at a surgery center up in St. George. The patient is in pre-op for about 30 minutes, the operation takes about 20 minutes, and then it’s back to post-op for another 30 minutes. It is very professionally done.
Anyway, I did the surgeries within a week of each other (his idea) and came through in good shape. There was no pain or discomfort whatsoever during the operations or afterwards. You can see immediately after the surgery; no eye patch required. A regimen of eye drops is the only post-op treatment… easy peasy.
It’s probably too early to say for sure, but the result thus far is not what I expected. Colors are brighter, of course. However, there is still a significant difference in vision between my eyes and it seems as though the predicted result was the opposite of what Dr. Snow promised: I can now see very good up close (within a foot or so) while everything beyond 12 inches is blurry.
I am functioning now without glasses, which is a good thing, but I don’t care for the blurry distance vision beyond a few feet. I can see, of course, but I’m not comfortable with fuzzy images. Obviously, I can’t expect to see like a teenager, but I was hoping for a better result.
I have a follow-up visit scheduled with my Walmart optician this week where he will check out what Dr. Slade has wrought… and see what else he can sell me.
It would be a shame if I must resort to wearing prescription sunglasses when I’m driving around town. Right now, I couldn’t pass an eye exam at the local DMV if my life depended on it.
The various courtroom dramas that former President Trump is experiencing in recent days are dominating the network news cycle and podcasts on YouTube by legal experts.
Mr. Trump and his attorneys are exhausting every nook and cranny of legal textbooks and court precedents for some glimmer of hope, some magic bullet to excuse his criminal behavior and render him immune to prosecution. Or, at least, delay the proceedings until after the 2024 elections, in the hopes that he will be re-elected and can somehow squelch those pesky court cases or simply pardon himself.
His chances of doing so are possibly 50-50 in the Mar-a-Lago “top secret” documents case, as the judge in that matter is a Trump appointee and is very obviously trying to help him out.
This is not the case in the New York civil trial against the Trump Organization (for chronic business fraud), nor in the Georgia election extortion case nor in the Washington D.C. case involving the 1/6/21 Capitol Riot matter.
Trump attorneys have recently rolled out a generic defense of their client’s tawdry actions by claiming that, as President, he enjoyed immunity from prosecution and, thus, as an ex-President, continues to do so.
Unfortunately for Donald Trump, the U.S. Constitution grants no such immunity. The “I was just doing my job” excuse can hardly apply to strong-arming several Georgia officials to change the votes that had been cast sufficient that Trump could squeak out an electoral victory. Ditto for inciting a mob to attack the Capitol Building and delay the Congressional certification of the 2020 election.
As far as I can determine, a President has no official role in the electoral process, a responsibility that is Constitutionally assigned to the States.
Should a State flub up its responsibility (like botching an election, which Trump asserted after the 2020 election), the Department of Justice might intervene if Federal election laws were violated. Trump and his crew tried to claim this after the election, however no proof was ever provided despite many recounts and audits. In fact, Trump’s own Attorney General Bill Barr publicly asserted (before the Capitol Riot) that the 2020 elections had been clean of fraud.
Thus, the President did not have a Constitutional duty or an excuse to involve himself in the electoral process. He got involved because he was defeated by Joe Biden and was mad about it.
There is no Presidential immunity from doing criminal acts, particularly if such acts do not fall within the job description.
Trump is also raising another lame defense: that because the Senate failed to convict him in his second impeachment trial, then therefore he is innocent of the crimes he is now being prosecuted for relative to the Capitol Riot escapade.
That excuse does not hold water, either.
Impeachment is a political undertaking, not a criminal trial. It is a Constitutionally-provided remedy for removing a President from office for “high crimes and misdemeanors” like, for example, attempting to extort the Ukrainian President to “find dirt” on Joe Biden during the 2020 election campaign. The fact that Trump did the crime was not in dispute, as there were witnesses to the phone conversation. The Senate failed to convict the President simply because there were more Republican Senators than Democratic Senators in the “jury”.
(That impeachment is a political tool, and not a judicial process, is evident when one considers the impeachment trial of ex-Prez Bill Clinton, whose “high crime and misdemeanor” was getting a blow job in the Oval Office. Bad judgment and unworthy of the office, for sure, but probably not a crime or even a misdemeanor. The Republicans just wanted to embarrass Clinton and they did so, using the impeachment process.)
Because those Senatorial Republican buddies of President Trump didn’t convict him doesn’t mean that a crime wasn’t committed. However, the ex-President’s attorneys are now claiming that his impeachment exoneration is tantamount to a criminal judgment of “innocent” and the recent charges against him are, in a sense, double jeopardy, which is outlawed.
If Trump’s attorneys’ recent creative assertions (immunity and double jepardy) were to be upheld by the Judicial Branch of government, it would allow a President who enjoys majority support in Congress to do just about anything he might want to do without any legal repercussions. He would, in essence, become a King, accountable to no one. He could, for example, do away with elections or kill anyone in the opposition Party or journalists who don’t kowtow to him.
There would be no more democracy in the United States.
That is not what the U.S. Constitution envisions or provides, and it would be breathtaking for the Supreme Court to assert this, particularly since most of the Justices are considered to be “Conservative” (i.e. hewing to the original intent of the Founding Fathers).
On the other hand, the current Supreme Court is facing strong criticism on the ethical front, and shows no signs of cleaning up its act. Each Justice, appointed for life, is accountable to no one, so a majority of Justices can engineer a lot of mischief.
Since they are “immune” from criticism, maybe they will extend this privilege to Presidents and ex-Presidents?
October has been a busy month thus far, and we’re only in the second week!
Many medical appointments are taking up a lots of time, as our doctors are located in St. George, Utah, which is an hour up Interstate 15 from our home. It’s a beautiful drive, up the Virgin River Gorge, but each appointment is a minimum three-hour commitment.
Last week, I had cataract surgery on my right eye in St. George. It went well. Then, I had to return the next day for a post-op check. But, before we saw the eye surgeon, Charlie had an appointment with her OB-GYN doc. About four hours after my visit with the eye doc, Charlie had an appointment with a gastroesophageal surgeon re: her issues with a hiatal hernia and GIRD.
It was one LONG day.
However, it was a GOOD day, as well, because Charlie got some hope about resolving her stomach problems. The surgeon was very thorough and went over the potential surgical options, identified all of the benefits and risks, and answered every question we asked. Going into the consultation, we were probably 80 to 20 percent against surgery, but Dr. Watson’s confidence gave us hope. We’re now probably 80-20 in favor.
This coming week will, again, involve a lot of traveling to-from St. George. Charlie has a pre-surgery exam via nasal-esophageal tube on Monday (at 7 in the morning, requiring us to leave home at 5 a.m.!). Then, on Tuesday, she has an Upper G.I. exam under fluoroscope. Then, on Wednesday, I have cataract surgery on my left eye. Then, on Thursday, I have my post-op follow-up with my eye surgeon .
(BTW, I can now, with only one eye fixed, see well enough to ditch all of my prescription glasses. For years, I have had three pairs: one for reading, one for watching TV, and one pair of prescription sunglasses for outdoor activities. I can hardly wait until they fix my left eye on Wednesday. It’s like being 15 again!)
We’re basically “on the bicycle” four days this coming week. Lots of driving up and down the beautiful Virgin River Gorge, which is very lush right now. At least that part of the ordeal will be pleasant.
I’ve been doing a lot of landscape repair to our property. The Summer was a hot one and quite a number of plants didn’t survive. I’ve replanted at least a dozen specimens in the soil and about a half-dozen in pots. We had a grub problem, evidently, as many of the root balls of failed plants showed evidence of the little root munchers. I’ve purchased a drip irrigation infuser which, when installed, will meter-out fertilizer and insecticide into the water that’s dripped into every plant. This should make the grub problem disappear and the fertilizer will give the plants a better chance to remain healthy year-round.
I have been walking around the neighborhood in the mornings with my good friend Mac. Six months ago, the guy was in great physical condition, hiking, biking, playing music, and generally enjoying life at age 70. Then, he developed chronic vertigo and general dizziness. His doctors have yet to figure out what is causing this. Mac is seriously depressed, while he sees various specialists to determine what might be going on in his head. He’s now seeing some EENT docs in Las Vegas and they are running a bunch of tests on him. Hopefully, they will stumble onto the cause. Let’s hope that it is fixable because, as Mac says, he “can’t live like this”.
A bad part of Mac’s ordeal is that he needs to do his own “bicycling” up and down Interstate 15 to his specialists’ offices, which are 90 minutes away in Las Vegas. With his condition, he can’t drive, so his wife is having to act as chauffeur, making numerous 3-hour round trips while her husband’s head is spinning. If you’ve ever suffered from vertigo, you know what a nightmare Mac is going through.
Our remoteness is a problem when we are ill, for sure. However, it is a very wonderful time of year right now in the desert, with daytime highs in the 80’s. Typically, October and November (and March and April) are splendid, weatherwise; it’s a time when we get a lot of use out of our backyard pergola and barbeque, and the dogs get to enjoy their wading pool.
Hopefully, by the time we get to the holiday season, Charlie and Mac will have received the medical help that they yearn for and we can all go back to carefree living.
