Orwellian Insurrection Talk v. Free Elections
I am haunted by memories of our Janus-like leader telling people while running for the office of President that if we voted for him, we would never have to vote again. What could he have meant by that? Aren’t elections part of what we value as a Democracy?
I am troubled by a leader who insists that what we saw with our own eyes on January 6th, that the thugs beating policemen, breaking and entering the Congress, chasing down Mike Pence with a noose was NOT an insurrection, not at all what he was going for when he told followers to “Fight Like Hell!” or we would have no Democracy. This leader who said he would be with them, and scurried back to the white house to watch events unfold on his Presidential television. He didn’t call off these hooligans and goons until HOURS after the violence began.
He PARDONED these thugs who invaded the Congress. He now calls it a “Day of Love.” Like we can’t see with our own eyes?
Just in time for Black History Month, he continues to dismantle exhibitions exploring the relationship between the enslaved and the enslavers. If it makes white people uncomfortable, isn’t that appropriate? Is slavery something we want to return to? And who, exactly do we enslave. Like are camera bearing Democrats candidates for the new underclass?
Armed with Whistles and Phone Cameras
J.D. Vance tells us to “lower the temperature” and help the ICE forces. J.D. Vance, you are talking to Minnesotans! You are talking to the descendants of Norwegians, the very nationality our orange leader wants to come to the USA! You are talking to people who have peacefully incorporated people from many nations, welcomed them! YOU created a spurious policy, based on a poorly made video by a social influencer. Yes, there was a child care scandal, and the people charged were not Somali but US citizens! YOU are creating the rise is heated emotions, and those you are shooting are armed with whistles and phone cameras!
Who has a history of creating violent insurrections? Who has sent unwelcome storm troopers into Minnesota? Who is poking Minnesota officials? Who is creating the problem and like every school boy bully, blaming the victim – “You started it!”
Go HOME, ICE. You are not welcome, you are not needed. You are invading the homes of US CITIZENS without a warrant, and laughing! You are shouting “Boo HOO!” to witnesses when you shoot a non-violent demonstrator 10 times! 10 Times! If that isn’t excessive force, what is?
I applaud the citizens of Minneapolis who are standing against this villainy and this bullying. I applaud their self-restraint and their persistence. I applaud Portland, Oregon for utilizing the legal system to lower the temperature and resist the pressure to give the radical bullying thugs any opportunity to raise the stakes.
Self restraint and Persistence while we activate the legal system is our only hope if we want to continue to have free and safe elections, and I believe that is what this is all really about.
Waiting for Snow
Lest you think I sit around between trips finding things to rant about, I will share my Saturday with you.
I am religious. I am a believer. LOL, here is where Catholics and Muslims have something in common – when I say “I am a believer” my Catholic friends think I am Catholic, and my Muslim friends think I am Muslim. Sooner or later we get it all figured out. I believe in a Great Creator, without whom nothing was created, and who is magnificent beyone our ability to understand. I believe he cares about us on an individual basis, and that he wants only good for all of us, whether we agree or not. I do not understand why he gave us all free will, and I know it would be a terrible world without it. I believe God is infinitely merciful.
So in the midst of some of the political horrors of January, I texted a friend and said “I need a meet-up.” We met up this morning at a local cafe and hashed out our lives, just normal stuff, families, husbands, children, and what we CAN do to make a difference. I have a friend from high school, and a friend from college, and friends from almost every post where we lived. We don’t always see one another, but when we need a good connection, we get on the phone – yeh, old school – and it’s like we’ve never been apart. When I need to re-balance, when my emotions are unmanageable, my friends help me recenter. Thanks be to God. At the cafe, I also saw another old friend, of a different political persuasion, and we were delighted to see one another, reminding me that our current differences are temporary, and mendable.
I arrived back home to the aroma of garlic and peppers sautéing; AdventureMan is making beans! We have been informed it MIGHT snow tonight, it is hovering just above and below freezing and a big pot of beans is a perfect hot weather meal.
Birds on the Bayou are chowing down, the fish must be running. We have pelicans plunging, an eagle chasing off a hawk, a cormorant and a heron.
Last year, almost this same time of year, we got several inches of snow. In previous years, I have seen a flake of snow here and there, but last year was a special confluence of factors – humidity, cold, polar vortex and a series of cold dry days in which the snow first fell, and then stuck around. It was like wiping away all the bad, a clean, clear new earth, few cars driving, lots of walking and lots of playing. Maybe we all need to play a little more. Pensacolians love a good snow, and it doesn’t stick around long enough to get old.
Our house is warm, we have a big pot of beans cooking, we have friends, I’ve recovered all my lost-for-a-very-short-time passwords and life is sweet. May you be equally blessed; may all your problems be little ones.
Oh Those Poor White People, Those Poor White Men
First, a disclaimer. I like men. I like men a lot. Some of my best friends are men, of all colors and nationalities. I am married to a white man.
Our Glorious Leader, the Bone-Spur Coward-in-Chief declares (as he has in Executive Orders from Day One of his Regency) that diversity, equality and inclusiveness are discrimitory against white males, and are hurting them.
I challenge Trump to take a look at statistics. I challenge him to tally the ranks of CEOs and Executives in the USA to see just what percentage of each sex and race are in those positions, and in what proportions. IF white males are not dominant, I will eat this post.
Yes. This is a rant. Yes, I am livid. As a woman, I was privileged to go to university, privileged because my own father was sure that women’s place was in the home, having children, taking care of you know, women things. He was shocked and horrified that I didn’t get a teacher’s degree or a nursing degree, or why had he sent me to college?
A very small percentage of women and people of color have managed to get to the highest positions of influence, power and wealth in the United States. So tell me about the poor white men!
For my American friends who scorn the Middle East; I lived in three countries, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia where the voters – men – recently voted for the women in their countries to have the vote. These were men who love their mothers, sisters, cousins, wives and daughters and wanted them to have the dignity of choice of leadership in their own countries. They educated their daughters, and even, in Saudia Arabia, would take their daughters out to the deserts and teach them how to drive, even though it was illegal in Saudi Arabia for women to drive. These Arab, Islamic men you denigrate supported the right of females to vote, to have access to good education. At one time they sent them to the United States. I don’t imagine they will be sending their daughters -or their sons – here now.
It is unthinkable to me that these statements are issuing from privileged white men in charge of our country. We’re looking at universities in Ireland and Scotland where universities will, as US universities once did, encourage free exchange of ideas and fraternity, and equality and respect and dignity of all people.
At one time, not too long ago, in our country, we had laws, and those laws were obeyed! We had laws protecting the cleanliness of our air and water, we had laws protecting the rights of citizens – and non-citizens. We had laws against profiting from public office, laws requiring the disclosure of personal interests, and recusal from decisions that might enrich the decision-maker. We had laws requiring oversight of government policies. We had a Supreme Court that acted with impartiality. We had a President who was not above the law. We had alliances with countries with whom we stood shoulder to shoulder for decades against bullies and thugs.
I expect my son will call and warn me that our Orange Acting President of Venezuela is about to take away my citizenship and send his Goons to my door with zip ties for speaking out. Or maybe just come and shoot me in the face as I offer cookies and ice tea?
So Much For Health and Transparency
It started during COVID. Politicians and their Administrations stopped publicizing statistics when the stats revealed their government was doing little or nothing to prevent spread of disease. Now, under the cover of cost reductions and eliminating fraud they are gutting the agencies that maintain the statistics and restricting publications of what few statistics are being gathered. Fortunately, private institutions and individuals are watching, keeping track, and doing their best to keep a vulnerable population informed.
Pensacola New Year’s Sunset over the Bayou
We moved to this house at the beginning of COVID. You wouldn’t think it was a great time to go house hunting or to move, but it worked for us. Almost every day, I thank my husband for moving here (he had said “No more moves!” but COVID made things different.) Almost every day is a sunset – not unlike this one, but no two are identical. Every day. It never fails to thrill my heart. Happy New Year!
British Isles: Lerwick, Shetland and Jarlshof
We are finally here! Were were excited about visiting the Shetland Islands back when we did The Wake of the Vikings, but the weather made the water too tough to dock or tender in, and we had to skip the Shetland Islands. It was particularly disappointing to AdventureMan, as he had watched every episode of Shetland, a mystery series on Netflix.
As it turns out, he wasn’t alone – one of the first things the guide mentions is that everyone wants to see where the murders were committed (and through the trip, she showed us!) but that the show made The Shetlands look like the murder capitol of the world, when in truth, daily life tends to be very routine, and crime of any kind is limited. And everybody knows everybody.
Probably half of our bus had watched the show, or read Ann Cleeves addictive books about Shetland, and there was a lot of enthusiasm and appreciation from the people on the bus when the guide pointed out the places where the crimes really did not take place.
On our way this morning, this cracked me up. The local ferry, the North Link, with a big Viking on it passes the huge Viking ship as if we were barely moving, LOL. I guess it just struck me as funny. Maybe he’s pointing the way, thinking we are lost.
Today, it is cloudy, but they are high clouds, and foggy, the kind that burns off by late morning, and AdventureMan spots a seal sporting in the Viking Jupiter wake as we are docking.
I was wearing a skirt, but I change into Levi’s because it is chill, this is Juneau, Alaska, where I grew up kind of August. I wear a shirt under a sweater, and carry a windbreaker, which I later don when we hit Jarlshof, our destination today.
En route, we pass gorgeous bays, fields full of fat, happy sheep, contented cows and frisky Shetland ponies. We stop for a break in Hoswick where I find a gorgeous handmade coffee cup, and love the old crafts demonstrations set up there. It was still very early – barely 8:30, so they had gone to some trouble to be open when we passed through.
In this village I see something that blows my mind, an entire hedge which is a fuchsia shrub. Fuchsias are special to me; I used to buy one for my Mother for Mother’s Day. I have tried to keep hanging fuchsia’s almost everywhere we have lived, but they are very particular – don’t like heat at all, and need just the right amount of water. The guide tells me this is a hardy fuchsia, and they are grown all over the Shetlands because they love it there. What luxury!
We see a tall ship out in the adjoining bay. Our guide is smart, and a good story-teller. She tells us not much really grown in the Shetlands to support life; the trees are mostly gone, some grow potatoes and vegetables in family plots, but the main industry, until the oil fields came, has been fishing, particularly herring. There are herring stations near where our boat is docked, and she tells us there were women called the “gutting girls” who would flay and salt the herring and put them in barrels to ship around the world.
We learned the Shetlands have only been a part of Scotland for the last 500 years; before that they were largely settled by Danes and Norwegians. The streets are named after Norwegian kings, and their language is a marvelous combination of Norwegian language patterns coupled with Scottish vocabulary.
We reach Jarlshof, literally the house of the Earl, and there is a ruin of a medium sized stone house with more-or-less modern dimensions. The treat, though, is that (like Scara Brae in the Orkneys) a large storm uncovered ruins of dwellings dating back more than 4,000 years, built partly underground but covered by sand over the years.
The people who lived here were smart, and inventive. They created archways and strong tunneled wheel-houses, for living, for storage, or so the anthropologists and archaeologists surmise. The truth is, no one knows how or why, or even who made these dwellings. No one really knows whether they died out, or were driven away when the Northmen invaded, or if they assimilated – most of the Orkneys and Shetland Islands have a large portion of Nordic blood running in their veins.
Seeing these early dwellings is a thrill, and it is further thrilling knowing that there may be even earlier dwellings underneath these ones. No one wants to destroy what they have found so far to search for earlier peoples.
Equally thrilling is that while we are touring Jarlshof, the sun breaks through and the landscape looks different, no longer shades of grey and diffuse with fog, now it is bright and shines with energetic colors.
You never know when suddenly you will find a treasure, and today, as I was exiting through the Visitor Center, I saw some truly gorgeous scarves, in classic colors with classic patterns, created by a Scottish Heritage foundation. I couldn’t resist. Sometimes you see something special and you know it. This scarf thrills my heart.
Leaving Jarlhof, we are stopped by a gate across the road and a red light. The road crosses the airport landing strip, and a plane is landing, stopping all traffic in both directions until the gates are lifted once again. We watch the plane land, and then we proceed. I’ve since learned from Ann Cleeves that this is Sumburgh Airport, into which investigators and medical examiners fly from Aberdeen when there are all these murders in Shetland.
Our ride home is beautiful, again the hills with sheep and cows and ponies, even a few goats. We see small farms, we reach Lerwick where the Viking Jupiter is docked and see granite and sandstone buildings, a high street for shopping and modern supermarkets. Our guide is very proud to tell us that most of the shops in the Shetlands are privately owned, with very few chain stores. Shopping is more personal. Mail order through the internet is iffy – because everything has to come in by air or by sea, weather plays a big role, particularly the wind and rain, and no one guarantees “next-day” delivery.
Back on board, we both choose Malabar beef curry with roasted carrots and are delighted. Afterwards, we go down to the main lounge for coffee, then to the spa to exercise and to recover from our morning.
I try to carve a time each day when I can write this journal while our memories are still fresh, but there is so much! I wake up in the middle of the night remembering new things I need to tell you about!
We are starting to think about packing. Every time we think about it, we put it off. Our ship just departed Shetland for Bergen, Norway, where we will spend the day tomorrow, then depart on Monday for home. We can pack tomorrow.
Leaving Shetland – even the skies and seas are the Shetland colors of my scarf!
Maybe this was the best day of our trip?
From Oppressive Governments
Prayer from today’s Lectionary:
PRAYER (contemporary language)
Almighty God, we thank you for the faith and witness of Paul Sasaki, bishop in the Nippon Sei Ko Kai, tortured and imprisoned by his government, and Philip Tsen, leader of the Chinese Anglican Church, arrested for his faith. We pray that all Church leaders oppressed by hostile governments may be delivered by your mercy, and that by the power of the Holy Spirit we may be faithful to the Gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Diwali: A Light Sparkles in Dark Times
Today, Labor Day, when dark events are taking place in our country, shutting down the light of liberty and democracy, we got an unexpected invitation – to a Diwali party, coming up in a couple months.
We are so honored. And we know Diwali; we were living in Al Fardan 1, in Doha, Qatar, when an Indian neighbor invited all the residents of Al Fardan to come over for Diwali. We didn’t know what Diwali was, and our internet was dial-up and irregular, but we asked around and were told, with big smiles, to go and find out.
The night of Diwali came, and we walked to our neighbor’s house, along with many of our Al Fardan neighbors. We could see it long before we arrived – thousands of candles set out in patterns in the yard, lining the sidewalk, leading us inside, to more lights and a feast of sweets, platters of sweets, all illuminated by gleaming candlelight.
Such open-hearted hospitality. Such generous sharing. No one was excluded; everyone was welcome, and there was plenty for everyone.
Our neighbors’ beliefs were different from ours, and yet, I believe all such generosity, freely given, springs from the same spirit.
We can’t wait for this upcoming Diwali.
Crime Wave? Another Lie
Today I am sharing a blog post from Robert Reich, about how we can deal with the absurdities we are hearing about crime waves – but only in inconveniently Democratic majority cities:
How to respond to Trump’s lies about a “crime wave”
AUG 28, 2025
Friends,
Trump’s escalating rhetoric of a “crime wave” in America, coupled with threats to occupy Chicago, New York, Baltimore, and many other cities, has put many Democrats in a bind.
They worry if they deny crime is a problem, they could turn off swing voters who always and inevitably worry about crime.
As with immigration, crime is an issue that Trump can demagogue because, while the rate of serious crime his fallen dramatically, most Americans continue to fear crime. That fear has been heightened by expanding homeless encampments and drug overdoses in plain view, no matter what the statistics say.
Crime has also been a racial dog whistle. At least since Richard Nixon emphasized “law and order” and Ronald Reagan said he’d be “tough on crime,” Republicans have used fear of crime as code for white fear of Black people.
So what should Democrats do? My suggestion: Don’t simply give statistics showing that the rate of dangerous has fallen. Say safety is critically important, but local police rather than federal troops are best at dealing with it.
Don’t stop there. Hammer Trump for pardoning the 1,500 criminals who violently attacked the United States capitol and caused the deaths of four police officers — and for then firing the federal prosecutors who held them accountable.
Attack him for opening the floodgates to white-collar crime — hobbling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, freezing enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, disbanding the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, and retreating from almost all federal lawsuits involving money laundering, crypto markets, and foreign corruption.
Since retaking the White House, Trump has granted clemency to Lawrence Duran, a health care executive who was convicted of leading a Medicare fraud and money laundering scheme. Trump has commuted the 14-year sentence of Jason Galanis, who defrauded investors, including a Native American tribe and a teachers’ pension fund, of tens of millions of dollars. He has pardoned Julie and Todd Chrisley, the reality TV stars convicted of bank fraud and tax evasion.
In April, the Wall Street Journal reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi was “swapping out and sidelining career supervisors who were responsible for charging crimes such as corruption, price fixing and securities fraud.”
Trump is soft on crime as long as the crime serves his own purposes. People who try to get on Trump’s good side — such as New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who was indicted on bribery charges during the Biden administration — have seen Trump’s Justice Department drop its charges against them.
Before they poured money into Trump’s initiatives and PACs, many Big Tech corporations were facing federal investigations and enforcement actions. Those investigations and lawsuits are now being dropped.
Earlier this year, the Department of Justice dropped its criminal case against Boeing, which involved the company’s role in two plane crashes that killed 346 people — despite Boeing previously agreeing to plead guilty in the case.
Trump is himself a criminal, found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree related to payments made to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
Don’t just accuse him of manufacturing a pretext to go into American cities. Hit him hard on his own horrific record of coddling criminals.
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