MY BAD

But bad in a good way.  I underestimated the power of African American people who live in Alabama. Especially African American women.  The turnout among that community was huge and offset the fact that a sexual predator won the votes of a majority of white women.  But African American men and women turned out and over 90% of them voted for Jones.  I celebrated Hanukkah with a close relative of mine last Tuesday night.  And she said something along the lines of "we need another Hanukkah-like miracle".  Lo and behold, it happened in the deepest of the deep South.  Mr. Jones even wished me and members of my tribe a Happy Hanukkah. Meanwhile, those 3 bourbon sipping boys were last seen heading west for the Alabama/Mississippi border looking for another racist, misogynistic, and predatory candidate to support. Likely as not, they might find one in Mississippi.

Other Random Notes of Interest:
--The judge has yet to concede and, according to him, he is awaiting word from God as to the final results. Good luck on that.  I heard that Bannon looks like a disheveled drunk. He actually does not drink--but he sure as hell looks disheveled.
--It is about to be the fourth night of Hanukkah and I cannot help myself--I just love that stupid Hanukkah song of Adam Sandler.  I was reminded of that when watching that "Meyerowitz" movie recently and wondered why Sandler appears in those stupid movies when he clearly can act.
--Speaking of movies, run to the cinema and see that 3 Billboard movie.  Frances McDormand is just wonderful.
--What words can I use to describe Sara Huckabee Sanders without offending?  She really is special.  Perhaps not a liar; but pretty damn close. How about she manipulates the truth? I get that it is her job to support and defend POTUS.  But does she have no shame? She also happens to be like POTUS because she is a bully who disrespects the press/media.  I have to say she is agile on her feet.  Which frequently makes me wish for Sean or the Mooch who tripped over their tongues fairly regularly. She does have lots of pearls.
--And lets shrink the National Parks while we are at it and maybe even do some more drilling in Alaska. Seriously
--Gotcha Mike Flynn.  Been caught lying about conversations with the Russians both before and after the election.  How can those fervent anti Communist Republicans continue to support POTUS is beyond me and likely beyond hope. Putin publicly thinks POTUS has done a great job and only wishes those mean people would stop investigating Russians.  Then POTUS could really succeed.
--If I watch too much MSNBC at night, I sink into despair and often feel quite helpless in the face of each day's astonishing news.  I have found myself, in the face of this, listening to some of the music of the 60's.  I find comfort in it and comfort in my own thoughts about that time period.  It is not being a Luddite to be reminded of that time, the fights that we fought over important changes, the people that were assassinated, and the influence that period has had on this society.  Nothing happened quickly or easily.  But, in my eyes and from a distance of about 50 years, those years mattered.  They mattered then and the memory of them matters now. The Byrds were in the car today as I drove around JP.  My head, however, was back in the 60's and it was good.

No sports but Happy Birthday to LH.

Merry Xmas to some of you and Happy New Year to all. Shalom

I'M SICK AND TIRED OF BEING SICK AND TIRED

One can only hope that Jared follows the fine role model of his father and ends up in the pokey.  I would love to see him in a perp walk cuffed up.  Can there be more?  Oh, yup, we can have an embarrassment of a POTUS who retweets racist/hateful videos defaming Muslims.  Even the conservative British PM raked him over the coals for that and Parliament members were even more critical.  But, in the end, i ask myself daily, will it matter and who cares.  It feels as if he is teflon and the sexual predatory comments he made prior to his election do not stick to him the way they have stuck to all the other white guys who have recently been outed.  So, you have to be more of an optimist than me to believe anything will change.  Except of course the mid term elections might help.  Moving on.

--Al Franken gets no more or less slack than any of the other men who have groped or raped or fondled or used power to overwhelm women. He may have done some of that prior to being elected but still...
--Another thing I do daily is think of and pray for Ruth to stay alive.
--Please do not wish for Mike Pence to take over or Tom Cotton to replace Tillerson.  They are both maybe mentally healthier but are right wing ideologues who will be welcomed by the Republicans.  The more I read about those two, the more I think (as I may have said before), be careful what we wish for.
--The perfect bully pairing was the tweet battle between POTUS and Levar Ball.  Both are combustible fools who really are PR hacks who glorify in having their names mentioned in public and in fact are not worth our time.  That twitter universe is a big waste of this new world order.
--And, in news that kid of just slips by, POTUS and his boy at interior (?Zinke) are in the process of reducing the size of some significant new National Monuments which of course were approved by Obama.  And don't even ask me about lower level Federal judicial appointees.
--Roy Moore, the pedophile, is in a twitter bout with Jimmy Kimmel which has been kind of funny.  But, beyond his sexual activities, he is an affront to decent people if only because of how he talks about the GLBT community, the Muslim community, and any person who is "different".  Wonder what he thinks of members of my tribe.  I have no faith in the people of Alabama electing his opponent.  I hope I am wrong.
--A side bar:  Did you know that the country of Bosnia Herzegovina has 3 Presidents who do not get along but exist because they represent three distinct groups of the citizenry?  Check it out.
--The Globe outdid itself with a long prominent article about a vet treating a squirrel and becoming attached to it.  Kind of perverse if you ask me.
--Looks like we will be sending some Haitians back to their island since life just suddenly got better there.  Who cares if they are the poorest country in the hemisphere.  We need them to leave so all the unemployed white folks can get jobs the Haitians took.  Seriously?
--I will leave you with this Native American proverb in light of gutless Republicans like McConnell and Ryan:  "When the last tree is cut down, the last fish eaten, and the last stream poisoned, only then will you realize you cannot eat money".
--Happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate.

NO SPORTS

Shalom