NO MAS

How much more can there be?  The swamp has not been drained but I feel like we are all wallowing in the mud created by POTUS and his cronies stirring up the swamp.  Ivanka and Jared (two people who are old before their time) represent us while, nearby, Palestinians are killed.  And yup, I know all about Hamas, their violence, their relationship with Iran, their corruption, and their complicity in not supporting negotiated peace efforts.  But POTUS started this latest conflict by moving the capital to Jerusalem.  That city has historically been the sacred "home" for three religious groups:  Jews, Christians, and Muslims.  In an effort to prop up Netanyahu and throw a bone to certain Jewish groups, POTUS has moved the capital, damaged any hope for peace, and created a context for the latest uprising.  It is truly painful.

--Two people who must go are Pruitt and Devos.  Every move they make eradicates the progress made and the changes implemented by Obama ands crew.  In Education and the Environment, these two are taking us backwards in time to the good old days. They are kicking sand in our faces.
--What to say about the White House staffer saying about McCain--he is dying anyhow?
--I'm finished with Cohen and Avenatti.  They need to get off my television and go back to work or something.  I may be repeating myself but someone mentioned (way back when) that the Stormy business could be more impactful than the Russian investigation.  Avenatti needs to keep releasing all that info but silently, please.
--Animal updates from the Boston Globe.  Big story about seals who have survived winter storms despite being physically hurt and were being released after recuperating.  Another big one: UMaine students who are stressed out now have a herd of goats on campus to ease that stress.  I knew goats ate poison ivy but did not know they are similar to anti anxiety meds.  And, finally, not too far from here, a  wild turkey was shot in a drive by.  The paper is pencil thin but manage to bring us these nuggets.
--Dr.  Bernstein just told me I was the healthiest 72 year old he had ever seen.  Plus he gave me some special drug to grow my hair back like his.  EEK.
--The missus and I volunteer at a food pantry in a nearby church.  So do about 15 others.  It is a small effort but I love it.  Problem is some of the volunteers monitor the food like it was being taken off their table--"only take two of those, dear".  I make sure they get 4.
--POTUS wants to "close the country"  Where were his forebearers from anyway?  They were certainly not on the Mayflower.  And, therefore, they were immigrants who might not have gained entry if we closed our borders.
--Does POTUS really think his base wants to do the work of hospice aides or hospital janitors?  Are those the jobs they are dying to do so that we can force out the immigrants currently doing them?
--And Rudy is an asshole.  As is Kanye.
--Congrats to 3 relatives:  one leaving middle school for the big wide halls of her local High School; one getting a job at a large news organization; and one getting a Master's Degree on her way to a big
job in sports management.

SPORTS TALK
The Bruins were fun to watch and next fall will even have more young gifted players on the team.  I am not sure how the Celtics will beat Lebron but whoa are they fun to watch.  The two J's (that would be Jaylen and Jason)  are just terrific.

Shalom

WHAT'S GOING ON?

Thanks to the fabulous Marvin Gaye for the title.  My head is spinning.  And I am not sure what is going on.  The questions are out but who leaked them?  If the leaker (or leakers) ever get identified, I am hoping it is not Mueller or members of his team.  That would ruin and de-legitimize the investigation just when it seems to really be focusing on POTUS.

No collusion/no obstruction.  The only people who believe that are members of his base who really do believe it is just a sinister DOJ effort to undermine POTUS.  He can do no wrong and the media are out to get him.

As pieces of my body literally fall off or get broken, I wonder why, when I was young, no one warned us this would happen.  Gotta move on.

--Domino's now offers pizza insurance.  Why, a naive person might ask?  Because what if you have bought a pie from them and you drop it?  A disaster.  Who cares about shit like that a more immature person might ask.
--Fashion advice:  When you wear clogs, please do not wear a cowboy hat along with them.  And if you do, do not hold up the line at the bank whilst you chat up the tellers.  EEK.
--If you want to be scared shitless category:  The latest NY Times magazine has an article about Devin Nunes, the California congressman who chaired the House Intelligence Committee.  He and his cronies cleared POTUS.  He is a conspiracy theorist who has much more nonsense up his sleeves.
--If you want to be scared shitless category (Part Deux):  McMaster being replaced by Bolton will lead us to some very bad places.  The first might be the Iran nuke deal which, by the way, has been successful. With Bolton's new role and with Netanyahu essentially scaring everyone with info years old, POTUS has the support to crater that deal.
--There is a daschund museum in Germany.  Seriously.
--Every time I see Macron, I wonder what it was like to have a relationship with one of your teachers.  Problem is I cannot remember any of them well enough.
--I do hope Macron and Merkel have some leverage with POTUS but I am skeptical.
--Even if you only drink tea or even if you do not know where Yemen is, you just have to read the Dave Eggers latest book about a man who sets up a business to export Yemeni coffee to the states.
--Travel note:  Spent 5 days in London with no rain.  Temps in the 70's and 80's.  Actually, without knowing it, saw the Queen herself.  Excellent travel companions and good food.
--Barbara Bush struck me as a kind and elegant woman.  POTUS blew off going to the funeral.
--He is a fucking bully.

SPORTS TALK
Good time to be in Beantown.  Bruins and Celtics both in the playoffs with strong young teams.  Very sick of the Brady drama and the Gronk soap opera.

Shalom

"OF COURSE WE SERVE CRABS. IN FACT, WE SERVE ANY0NE".

HAH.  A great ad for Legal Seafood.  Kind of right up my alley.

Moving on to some matters of import if only to me:

--A great visual of what is so enriching about the place I live.  At a mall in Cambridge (home as you know of the world's greatest university).  It is a Saturday night and the mall is bustling and buzzing and I am the oldest person by a good ten years.  It is a United Nations of people mostly older adolescents all bopping around with bags and packages and having a great time in THIS COUNTRY AND NOT IN WHATEVER WAR TORN COUNTRY THEY CAME FROM.
--Second visual.  This also in a mall and, as I write that, i wonder why I have been in two of these fucking malls in the last ten days--yikes.  Two young adolescent girls with long flowing dresses and wearing hajibs.  Accompanied by an older gentleman who I presume to be their father.  Buying athletic gear (I believe lacrosse stuff).  Could not do that wherever they came from.
--I wil just say it:  WE ARE A BETTER PLACE WHEN WE LIVE WITH THOSE "OTHERS".
--The city of Boston just approved kind of like an excise tax the proceeds of which will go to culture, the arts, and the environment.  it is based on your income and the value of your property (I think!!)  I thought it was a great idea since it could not be used, as an example, for salary increases.  But then the lunatics came out of their nice little homes with their nice little proposals.  One of which is something along the lines of the following:  use the dollars to creates a food forest for pollinators.  Umm/hmmm.  There are people who want to use the money so bees can make honey--I think thats what this means.  EEEEK, get the butterfly net out and not for the bees.
--A while back one of those talking heads on MSNBC casually mentioned that this Stormy Daniels business might turn out to be more damaging than the Russian business.  I'm starting to believe.  Would you hire Michael Cohen to be your lawyer?
--Pruitt is doing exactly what the boss wants done in terms of anti environmental action.  He may never get fired but even if he does, he has already done some serious damage.  They are so intent on undoing what Obama and his crew did.
--The Globe continues to barrage us with animal stories and stories about the Pope.  They may have no foreign correspondents but they obviously have a full timer working on animal issues and another working on issues related to the Catholic Church.
--Culture tip 1:  Watch the Chris Rock concert on Netflix called "Tambourine".  Hysterical while also dealing with issues of race as a black father.
--Culture tip 2:  The NY Times magazine of 4/8 has two great articles.  One about the boys basketball team on a reservation in Montana.  The second by and about a gun owner who is thoughtful and not a robot for the NRA.
--Our bags are not packed but we are ready to go across the pond hoping to see the royals.  Taking a close relative.

SPORTS TALK
Both the Bruins and the Celtics are a joy to watch.  However, the upside for the Bruins is much higher and the NHL has no equivalent team like the Warriors.  Get your parade gear ready.  I wish Gronk would just go ahead and make movies--screw him.

Cheerio

IS IT NOVEMBER YET?

I guess not.  POTUS continues to fire people and depend even more on amateurs to run our government.  If I knew he would appoint a doctor with no management experience to run the VA, I would have referred my primary care doc.  Or, better yet for me (which is what this is all about),  I would have referred myself since I have more management experience than his personal physician.  Being universally well liked is NOT a qualification. Moving on.

--The Easter message to us was that DACA will not be extended and the wall will be built.  Mexico is a bad country and there is a caravan of immigrants on their way here.  I locked my front door immediately.  How the religious right/evangelicals continue to give this guy a free pass is beyond me.  All I can get is that they are wishing for another vacancy on the Supreme Court.
--Remember Governor Maddox of Georgia who swung ax handles at people of color?  Remember George Wallace who tapped into the racist instincts of Northerners including those in this state.  This is what POTUS brings to mind as he goes to Ohio and lashes out at all of the "others".  We repeat the past at our own peril.
--I can no longer listen to the excuses of Republicans in Congress--or, worse yet, their silence.  They continue on their gutless wandering.
--Never liked Ted Nugent's music and never listed to Laura Ingraham.  So vindictive as if they had relatives on the Mayflower.
--It is worth noting that the ugly Easter tweets came from Mar A Lago where POTUS is accompanied by Stephen Miller a member of my tribe who might be the worst of the group still left.
--It is beyond dangerous to have Miller and John Bolton in the White House advising a POTUS who is child like in his inability to read let alone comprehend.
-- The Austin bombs hit home being as how a close relative of mine lives there.  I think a lot of "unstable" people have been unleashed by Presidential rhetoric.  Did you see the crowd in Ohio cheering him on?  He is, to be fair, delivering a message that is hitting the same chord as the one George Wallace hit.
--On a cultural note, I am heading off to the newly opened dog museum in North Adams.  Seriously--there is such a place and it was a big story in the Globe.
--On the big time crowded (and very famous) 39 bus the other day and was treated to overhearing a young woman screeching into her phone for the whole ride.  It is a kind of cultural arrogance that I detest.  I guess it was her bus after all.
--Happy Easter and Happy Passover.  I'm already sick of matzah.

SPORTS TALK
I am not optimistic about my Wolverines tomorrow night.  Villanova shoots so well, I am not sure how you can stop them.  Never figured them as a final four in my brackets--did have both Kansas and Villanova.  And if any of ;you had Loyola, you must ben related to the Sister who is their chaplain.  No baseball talk until 7/4 but I am loving the Bruins.

Shalom

"ADULTS LIKE US WHEN WE HAVE STRONG TEST SCORES BUT THEY HATE US WHEN WE HAVE STRONG OPINIONS"

That's an accurate and direct quote from Emma Gonzalez who is a survivor of the Parkland massacre.  Beyond its accuracy, it's also quite to the point about how we (as adults) interact with and view children/adolescents. Obey the rules, make us look better, but shut up.  I have yet to answer for myself the question of "movement vs. minute".  But most of the heroes in this story are kids of school age and most of the gutless ones are adults most of whom are beholden to the NRA.  And those adults were voted into office by us.

Florida is in my head a lot these days.  Part of this is due to the fact that I grew up there.  Part of it is due to the bizarro things that happen there.  Parkland. Alligators in canals.  A city (Miami) which is really a county (Dade) and folks who live in South Dade are almost closer to Key Largo than they are to downtown Miami if such a place still exists. Move on, I say.

Three literary recommendations:
      --One of the best pieces of journalism I have ever read was in the March 4th NY Times.
         It was written by a guy whose last name is Weiser and it was about a homeless woman.
        The Times started it on page one and then it spread over two whole pages inside.  Just
        stupendous and has to be read.  The Globe continues to be an impostor paper focused
        more on animal stories.
     --John Hodgman's book called "Vacationland"  is a hoot especially if you have spent any
        time in Maine.
     --Speaking of Maine, Amy Bass has written a book about the Lewiston HS boys soccer team
        which is mainly composed of Africans most of whom are from Somalia.  How these kids
        showed the adults (back to that again) in Lewiston how to "play nicely" together is wonderful.

That Nunberg had quite a day for himself and whoever asked if he was drunk was being brutally honest which I guess is what we want (?) journalists to be. Bye bye Rex and Hope. Seems like you might have some company pretty soon.  And if Sessions fires that FBI guy who now is two days away from his pension, it will be a brutal gesture from a small man.

But hello Stormy!! Should be fun listening to the talking heads try to chat about her without saying anything naughty.  But let's be clear about one thing:  saying she is a adult film star is being kind.  Helen Mirren is an adult film star.  Stormy is a full on multi faceted porn star.  Bam.

Lawrence O'Donnell from MSNBC is from Dorchester and John Kelly (Chief of Staff to POTUS) is from Brighton--both places are neighborhoods in Boston.  I really believe Lawrence is blasting him so much because of some ugly neighborhood feud--apart from how big a disappointment he is.

Did you know that the guy in Pennsylvania who won the special election won because he is kind of like a Republican according to POTUS and Speaker Ryan.  I wish the November elections were tomorrow.

SPORTS TALK
No one can explain to me what Belichik is doing to the Patriots roster.  No one.

Happy Passover and Easter.
Shalom

BREAK OUT THE BEER AND THE BRATS

It's time to join the celebration with those folks up there next to Lake Superior.  I'm talking the fine residents of Duluth.  The American men won gold in Curling which is now my favorite sport though i have to take a language course in order to fully understand what the hell is going on.  But the Duluthians know that language and love their brats and beer so I am excited to join them.  Most of those curling guys are from that area. The only other Olympic note is that except for these men, the women Olympians from the USA out performed the men--and if that is not related to Title IX, nothing is.  Moving on to other items of major import.

--Went to see on of my favorite doctors a couple of weeks ago.  He is from India, his Resident is from Eritrea, the receptionists wore hajibs and were from Muslim countries, and the blood tech was from the Caribbean. The obvious point is all of them are immigrants as many staff are in the hospital. Now that it is clear that we (as a country) are not so welcoming, I am sure we will see POTUS supporters lining up to do those jobs--especially the more menial ones.
--Those memos released by both Democrats and Republicans were a lot of verbiage over nothing.
--The continuation of the demeaning of the poor remains a depressing feature of this Congress.  Food stamps will be reduced if not eliminated and something like Blue Apron will end up on your doorstep.  Don't want those folks showing up in the store and actually picking out their own food.  Plus the lines they create.  So sad.
--The Boston Globe's recent animal feature:  A local teen had a rooster as a "comfort" animal due to her psychiatric history.  The town she lives has banned it.  A big spread in the paper also.  What if you were flying to LA and the teen bought a seat for her rooster--oh my.  I do wonder if that bird is toilet trained. And, if so, my boys in Louisiana do not want him in the men's room.
--Collusion or Obstruction--I will leave that decision to smarter people than me.  But the Russian business gets me more and more scared.  70,000 votes in Ohio, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania determined the election.  Maybe POTUS still would have won but don't tell me the Russian influence was not a factor. You know, that old "where there is more, there is fire" business.
--And Jared has got to go.  He is old before his time and maybe he can be like his father the felon.
--So a porn star and a Playboy bunny get paid off by lawyers for POTUS and Congress does not even say anything let alone say anything.  You cannot make this shit up.  It is so embarrassing.
--Lebron should not shut up just because Laura Ingraham decided players should not have opinions.  As he said, who is she anyway?
--A close relative asked:  "Is this a moment or a movement?"  Referring to the Parkland massacre.  I worry that it is a moment but I wish it were a movement.  Hard to imagine POTUS being more outspoken than Congress.  But remember, Paul Ryan leads with his ass and not his brain.

SPORTS TALK
The Pats lost and now we have drama about next year.  I will not spend a minute on listening and will not care until it is kickoff time in the fall.  Mainly I am loving the Celtics and the Bruins--both young teams and very athletic.

Shalom

DATELINE: OSLO

Being a member of the 1% club, i stepped off my private jet to see what all this fuss was about Norway and getting a bunch of them to come on over.  My three fellow social security recipients from bumfuck, Louisiana, accompanied me.  Being as how we were on a private jet, they were all good and liquored up.  Almost set the plane on fire when they continued to smoke their big fat cuban cigars on the tarmac.  This is what we fond out.  They have national health insurance which covers everyone--and everyone gets the same basic coverage.  People like me can buy supplements but everyone is covered.  Universities have no tuition.  So, me and the boys really could not cogitate this state of affairs.  One of them had this funny story:  "Went to see his primary care doctor who told him he needed a tetanus shot but it would not covered if it was given in the office.  Was told to go to a pharmacy where it would be covered.  Now even more confused, he went to CVS and was told yup they could give him the shot and yup it was covered but only after he paid a $60 co-pay. He called his doctor and told him he would stay away from rusty nails and not get the shot". Norwegians do not comprehend co-pays or partial coverages or any of our incomplete insurance plans.  The boys and I do not feel as if many Norwegians will be coming over here unless we open up the Alaskan coast line to whale hunting.  We said ta ta and told our hosts POTUS might just do that.

Moving on:
--Cory Booker was in an uproar when the head of Homeland Security could not "remember" what was said or who said what in the meeting when POTUS used the word shithole.  She can remember most everything in her job one would hope--like how to harass immigrants--but at this meeting, nope she just ould not remember.
--Central American individuals (legal or not) send remittances home to their families.  The money is a major support to those families and the money makes up almost 5% of a nation's GDP.  It will be ugly if the remittances stop because those folks are deported.  And don't even start talking to me about how they are all criminals.
--Time to put your trees and wreaths on the street.  Seriously.
--I now believe he was right--he could go out onto Fifth Avenue and murrder somebody and not get arrested.
--Never thought I would say I am a big fan of the FBI.  My only experience with them was during the fabulous 60's.  Details will have to wait.  But I love hem now.
--Entirely too much self satisfaction and gloating on MSNBC.  Meanwhile, nothing has changed and I am more skeptical than ever that POTUS will be removed from office.
--Which means continue to pray for RBG and be ready to work as the November election process begins.

SPORTS TALK
Briefly, I am way too optimistic about Mr. Brady and the boys.

Speak to you again at the end of February.
Shalom