Politics

  • A Shameful Past

    Just across the street from our Airbnb in Juneau is a lovely Russian Orthodox Church, which I remembered seeing the last time I was there in 1999. While waiting for it to be time to meet the shuttle for our whale watching trip, I decided to walk over and see if I could peek inside the church. It’s a lovely little church with a long history in Juneau. From the church website: St. Nicholas Orthodox Church was founded in 1893, at the request of the local Tlingit community. Constructed locally by Tlingit people and Serbian miners in 1893-94, the church was built on land donated by Yees Ganalax and using plans and…

  • Recall Stupidness

    California is sometimes a wonderful place, with our amazing produce and wine and sunshine and coastline. It is sometimes a horrible place, with our wildfires, droughts, insane housing prices, our never ending homeless problems, and hot hot weather. And sadly, it is often a stupid place, with our ballot initiatives and our recall elections. This history of the process goes back to the early 20th century, when sweeping reforms went through in an attempt to weaken influence of private interests, and give more power to the voter. Sadly, this means we often get to vote on stupid things, including sometimes contradictory measures that confuse the voters. Our recall process is…

  • Meme Monday

    Over 500,000 Americans dead in 1 year from COVID-19. Record weather and power outages combined with unfettered greed, leading to entirely avoidable deaths. American terrorists attack the Capitol in an attempt to overthrow the 2020 Presidential election. Huge protests in our streets, fighting for social justice and expressing outrage over the continued murders of black men and women. Huge wildfires, caused by a combination of drought, poor forest management, and climate change, becoming an annual occurrence in the West.

  • Meme Monday

    One last meme while the shit head is President. We are all looking forward to the end of this Presidency. What a relief it will be to know that the person in charge is not a psychopath. I like Biden just fine. I like Harris even more. But honestly, I would rather have a rock in the White House than Trump. Right now I’m wondering in what order the Presidential pardons will come…my guess is first, people who have paid for them, then friends, then family, then traitors and terrorists who attacked the Capitol building, then he will pardon himself. He’s going to have a busy couple of days. We’re…

  • Meme Monday

    The attempted coup last week was in no way funny. However, I am going to post a bunch of memes/cartoons that I saw online anyway. What I really want to say, however, is screw these assholes. I would add, “And the horse they rode in on” but I like horses, so I will omit that part of the phrase. I have some Republican friends that I love and adore. Thoughtful people who know better and do condemn the President, and do not think it was an Antifa hoax. This post is not about them. I have some Republican acquaintances, people I went to school with or worked with at some…

  • Meme Monday – Birthday and Politics

    I hope you all had a lovely New Year. We did…I had a four day weekend, to celebrate my birthday on Thursday, and then the New Year on Friday. Thursday, Ted and Maya both had asked for the day off but could not get the day off. She had to work in the morning, and he had to work in the afternoon. So in the morning, Ted and I went for a nice walk with Mulder, then we came home and took showers and so on, and he started work. Maya only had to work a half day, so once she was finished we went to our outdoor mall and…

  • Meme Monday – New Year Version

    I’ve been saving this one, and I know in some ways it may feel true. Especially the first few months are bound to be desperate ones as far as this damn virus is concerned. I do hope that things get better as the year goes on, as the vaccine comes available, as we have a more sane administration, as hopefully people can behave after the surge that is bound to happen after Christmas and New Year celebrations. Here’s another meme, while we are bidding farewell to the year that has almost ended. Such a year. From it, I hope that we have learned a few things. Wash your hands Black…

  • Meme Monday – Back to Lockdown

    I posted this meme on Facebook last year after reading Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk, which is a great novel that I really enjoyed, about an 85 year old woman meandering her way to a party in New York on New Year’s Eve, 1984. Ms. Boxfish was a very talented ad woman for Macy’s in the 1930s, and the character is based on the real-life ad woman, Margaret Fishback. Facebook likes to remind you of things you posted on this day in history, so this popped up, and I decided it’s a meme, and it sums up the whole feel of Shelter in Place (SIP) so perfectly. Speaking of Shelter…

  • Meme Monday – COVID Edition

    “They were careless people…they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby Frankly, I’m surprised that it took this long for Trump and his cronies to catch COVID. How did they prevent him from getting it for so long? I can only assume that there are some people in the White House that actually believe in science and have done their best to force him to be safe. Eventually his bravado and jack-assary got the better…

  • Meme Monday

    I’m so distraught about the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She was an amazing woman, a gift to our country. But of course, the more difficult thing is how we go forward without her. Trump is going to appoint someone seriously right wing, I am sure, and McConnell is going to push them through the Senate. A few Republicans are promising to not vote on a Justice before the next Inauguration, should he lose, but I don’t believe them because they will be pressured and will cave, as they always do. So then what…then we go from a 5-4 Court to a 6-3 Court, and we are…

  • Keeping Track of the Tax Plans

    As you know, the House of Representatives passed a tax plan overhaul yesterday. I know that the Senate Plan will be different, and assuming they can get something passed, it will be some sort of reconciliation of the two. I thought it might be interesting (to me, if to no one else) to calculate how the tax plans would hypothetically affect our household. Since I don’t have numbers from 2017, what I did was to look at our 2016 taxes, and apply the numbers from the House plan, and see how we come out. We have a mortgage, we live in a high tax state, and our daughter is in…

  • Women’s March

    As the Women’s March came nearer, I felt more sure that I wanted to participate. But which one? We live in a small city (bigger than a town! Pop around 60k) in a very densely populated area, and there were two fairly large ones just a short BART (our local transit) ride away. So, Oakland or San Francisco? Both would be great. I still hadn’t decided, when Ted’s mom called and asked if we wanted to go to the one right here in our town. OK, I’m in. Easier than getting on BART even, and a shorter walk (Ted’s mom had hip surgery this summer, and I have arthritis that…