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 Wednesday, November 2, 2022

In bed at 11, up at 6, 4 pss, 2 and 1/2 glasses of red, awoke with dull throbbing pain in right foot, toes, probably diabetic peripheral neuropathy.  All Souls Day and I think of my mother, my father, and my sister, all 'the faithful departed.'  My heroic wonderful mother remained faithful till her too-early death.  My sainted sister also,  but not to Holy Mother Church after she came to accept the character of its clergy and hierarchs.  My poor father strove late in life to regain whatever faith he left on the black sands of Iwo Jima and after James Hartman's crime,  but it didn't work.  He had even become a Knight of Columbus in North Port, but couldn't cope with the anti-abortion militancy.  May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen

Movie Night

After a few nights of success, we didn't do so well last night.  Started watching "Labor Day" with Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin but stopped when Geri correctly foresaw it was going to be a Stockholm Syndrome  plot and I didn't want to watch a film about kidnapping, etc., before bedtime.   Then we switched to "The Hundred Foot Journey" with Helen Mirren but realized 18 minutes into it that it was about 2 and 1/2 hours long and would last way past our bedtime so we turned it off and thought we would try again earlier some evening.  Watched some Alex Wagner and some Lawrence O'Donnell, scary enough in their own ways.

Pernicious Politics

Americans have become so tied to party identity that race and class polarize us less than politics. I've been trying to come to some understanding of this, trying to figure out why so many Americans are so hostile, so distrusting of government, especially the federal government, so willing indeed desirous of seeing it fail in its central functions.  But I suppose the central issue is what are its 'central functions?'  To right-wingers, it used to be 'to defend our shores' and to deliver the mail, and I suppose delivering the mail is no longer on that short list, nor is public health if it involves doing anything we don't want to do or not doing something we do want to do.  Government is bad so the less government the better or as Reagan put it "In this present crisis, government isn't the solution to the problem, government is the problem.  Anyone caught up in government bureaucracy can understand this attitude.  Anyone caught up in government (over)regulation can understand it.  Anyone understanding the inherent corruption of 'the best government money can buy' can understand it.  Every year as I spend hours screwing around with our tax returns realizing that the work I do assembling documents and calculating numbers is totally unnecessary because the government already has the W2s, the 1099s, etc., in its IRS computers and can compute our probable tax, using the standard deduction, I can understand it.  Once you add in feelings of unfairness and favoritism towards some groups and not others, especially when it comes to racial preferences and skewed benefit programs, real resentment sets in.  Resentment can turn to hatred and for many Americans, it has.  Witness January 6th, 2021.

My Secret Life as "Ken"

Today's text: 'You were one of our top supporters, Ken, so where have you been?  We're surprised that YOU wouldn't be the first name on our list of patriots who answered the call to action.  Will you confirm you're not caving to the Dems by chipping in $15 before Trump's rally weekend is over? gored22.com/4uXhHH ' Time: 1:58 p.m.

8 minutes earlier: 'Six days until victory, Ken!  We're counting on you + 18 other top patriots to send $5 or more and help Trump's allies beat the Dems and send Pelosi packing.  Can we count on you? us-here,com/5MM8cT'

13 minutes earlier: 'A clean sweep in south Texas would humiliate Pelosi and the Dems.  I'm asking you to step up & chip in just $1 to help.  Just $1! notlib.com/digm - Ted Cruz'

42 minutes earlier: 'Ken, did you catch Tiffany Smiley on Fox News? She specifically asked for your support to help save American: 22-rep.com/3QyQUZ'

Latest as I stop looking, at 2:43 p.m.: Trump's ally Don Bolduc is surging in the polls but doesn't have the resources to finish this battle.  Give $20 and help Don cross the finish line victorious.ushere.com/53CKAN

It has been like this every day since August 10th.  Most of the texts addressed to my alter ego, "Ken" who has never responded to any of the texts, with a $1, $5, $20 or any other donation but still the messages flow daily to my phone and will up to and beyond election day, 3 months worth.  Re the references to Nancy Pelosi jar days after the assault on her husband, I'm reminded of Joseph Welch's1954 remonstrance to Wisconsin's first notorious and nefarious U.S. senator:  "Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness…. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" 

Geri's  Yellow Brick Road