This IS America - Corny, Silly, Visual - The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade - 2020

 Hello Fellow Travelers!

I was prepared to complain about some new and particularly evil way our country is being violated - destroyed, by the incumbent President.  I'll write about it soon because The WORST President EVER is going down and trying to drag anyone he can down with him. This week I saw something else that was so pretty, inventive, musical, colorful, so uniquely American, it made even my Grinchy heart grow!  (A little bit)  Taking in  a gorgeous, autumn, NYC and Al Roker reminded me of why we never stop going forward, leading, improving.  I fall down a lot,  but I always get back up! Sometimes I land on my feet and I'm never, ever bored.  I seem to be "hard-headed".  America has fallen and is recovering, recalibrating, reinventing.  Of course we can "Build Back Better".  We have no choice.   Even a parade can remind us of times, places and American traditions that stand the test of time, bring us together.  They had a float on which a ballerina danced "Swan Lake" en pointe - it was magical!  If we can create  a visual masterpiece like that, we can create anything!   We'll have a usable vaccine for Covid-19 before 2021!  How American is that?

Next week, I'll make more snide comments about the not-soon-enough-for-me-ex-President beaching Jabba-the-Hutt style behind a teensy, tiny, desk, baying at reporters.  (Did you see that?  He was so orange and porcine and howling with impotent rage.  If I was a small and mean sort, I would have thoroughly enjoyed myself.  Good thing I'm not! )  This week, however, I'll revel in our irrepressibility, our resilience.  One benefit I have as a student of history and a no-risk enthusiast, is perspective.  We live a very short time.  One season, one year, is nothing.

Another benefit of a life-changing event is change itself.  We modify, adapt, conserve to move forward.

I'll probably never go to a baseball game again but I'm hopeful that the MLB will be played in 2021. It will change but be safer, better.  Stadiums might not be possible but the game will remain.  Pioneers crossing this country, settlers moving west, littered the prairie with china, luggage, furniture.  Heavy, useless possessions that were not essential were dumped.  

The Donner Party carried (or tried to) heavy wagons overloaded with wooden keepsakes over the Sierras.   I've been to the Donner Camp (A Dark Tourist "must" - check out the gift shop) and those poor people were soooo close!  Another example of Why Minimalism-Feng Swei(sp?)-Rules!  A minimalist would never attempt to drag a dresser in a covered wagon.  

An American tragedy, illustrating American stupidity (they took a shortcut), resilience (their children flourished) and character (Mrs. Donner's devotion to her family, she died but her offspring succeeded in  Sacramento.)  The Macy's TG Day Parade is an American Tradition that was a triumph when we needed, I needed, to see something beautiful, useless, artistic and creative.  Before we go back to the current "crisis du jour", I'll look one final time at that brilliant, perfect, imaginary world that celebrates light, fairies, color and music.

House of Horrors or Priced To Sell?

 Hello Fellow Travelers!

Look at this house.  It's a newer custom build in the woods (Mississippi) with a modern look, lots of natural light,  local stone,  huge windows and high ceilings, and wood.  It's very private  At first glance, it's a great place, so I looked a little closer.  My "dream house" is the #1 worst (?) Haunted House in the US!  The traumatized owner wisely moved out.  A very intriguing documentary was made. (The House in the Middle" - Netflix).   My PS says it's all BS.  So of course I had to watch it. Unlike other "paranormal activity" documentaries (a lot of random beardy guys filming in the dark, saying "What was that?" a lot) this homeowner seemed genuinely terrified.  She did what I would do - she left, got the heck out of Dodge.  The fairly brief documentary raised a great many questions and confirmed one inflexible law:  any human being cannot coexist with an unknown/unknowable force.  Don't know if I believe it's true, if there are "forces at work", I don't want to know either..  I just know it's better to be safe than be scared 24/7.

Nice house, though.  Probably priced to sell oh well....  See?  It's  a "silver linings" sort of thing...

Then it becomes a moral question - could you knowingly pass that force on to someone else?  Do you make a buyer sign something releasing you of any future responsibility?  Of course, then  you'd have to find out what floor you needed to get off when you got on The Elevator To Hell-(because you know you're going, deal with it!)  Nope.  Too much work (and eternal damnation), 

As cynical as I can be, I believe that most people are basically warm-hearted and care about each other.  The election happened.  It was a heartstopping, bloody, mud-slinging brawl.  I couldn't get enough!

We dodged a bullet, a death blow.  The election was nauseating, nerve-wracking and ultimately, blissful.  For a minute we were all actually happy! But the true test, the real battle is here and we're way behind  The real war is curing Covid-19 and we're out of time.  This problem  has to be solved or a great many more of us will die.  According to the doctors, getting control of this virus in ANY meaningful way will require a lot of sacrifice and hard work; tedious, boring, fastidious habits.  After who-knows-how-much-time passes, maybe, just maybe a responsible President might tell us it's OK to go out, visit someone.  Life, as we knew it, might be gone. But feeling all the joy and love in the air seemed to gave us a glimpse of how great life could be.

The kids will just have to be bored for a few months.  I'm very relieved we elected Biden, I hope you are too.  This virus is not a hoax or a joke - it's all-pervasive, kills more people every day.  Having a demented and unfit person in the White House is untenable.

The future has inspired every new idea, solved most problems, created artistic masterpieces.  The future is full of possibilities.  Trump represents an imaginary past with a Stephen King overtone.  Trump has jeopardized my health and my continued existence.  We are spreading this virus at alarming rates.  I believe it is fairly certain that Trump has participated in many, many, illegal, self-interested, activities, I don't care.  He's a rabid raccoon, and you know what you do with rabid animals in America, right?  You call Animal Control.  What did you think I was going to say?

Why We Need To Act Now!

 Hello Fellow Travelers!

He's alone in a huge house.  The humans have left.  He threatened his wife, talked to ghosts and bullied women and children.  At the end of the story, at night, he's stumbling around, baying at the moon, howling at ghosts and demons only he can see.  Is this the last shot in "The Shining"?  Or last weekend at the White House?  Does it even matter?  The President is responsible for hundreds of thousands of Americans dying.  And it's getting worse.  That's real.  'Herd Immunity"= Giving Up.  Nancy Reagan said it, I'll scream it.  "No!"

Stealing Elections - No

Grabbing Women - No

Ridiculing the Handicapped - No

Traumatizing Families - No

Dismissing Science - No

Cheating On Your Taxes - No

Lying at least 29 thousand times! - No

Allowing Russia to Act Aggressively with Impunity - No (multiple instances)

Rampant Corruption - No

Cancelling Healthcare Because He Hates Barack Obama - No

Encouraging Violent Right Wing Militia Groups to "stand by" - No

Blackmailing Ukraine - No

Taking No Action for Russian Bounties on Killed US soldiers -  No

Sidelining Dr. A. Fauci (jealous) - No

And the list goes on and on....  But the one thing that no elected president, I mean no one, certainly not the President of the United States  cannot do is to refuse responsibility for a national plan, an aggressive response to a killer virus. That's why they're elected.  National crisis?  Manage it!  It's your job!  We all have enough to deal with.  The Federal Government is supposed to handle disasters on an international level.  So I voted "No"on this creep wearing a human suit.

You know what Hitler said?  "Make Germany Great Again!" (Hitler really said that - at a rally!) Plagiarizing from Adolph H. is not a good sign!

Taking his power, makes us a lot safer, we can start the process of rebuilding.  We owe the future generations a decent planet to live on.

The true fight is ahead.  Trump is just a bad opening act.

Mitch and Me (Part ?) Good News!!!

Hello Fellow Travelers!

He's Wearing A Mask!  Does It Mean He Cares About Others? Respect for Health?  Who knows or Cares?
It's the Message That Counts! 
Shhhh, We'll Scare Him!  A Republican Senator Wearing A Safety Mask -Very Rare
Awesome!

This is undeniably great!  I'll never meet him, probably never vote for him, disagree with most of his positions (OK, all) but he wears a mask!  Senator McConnell provided me a much-needed, seldom-seen example of non-partisan, practicality-based realism.  He wears a mask.  He's not comfortable, but he's wearing it anyway.

It's not political, not racial, not sexist.  This virus is potential death and until there's a vaccine we have to use every tool we have to fight it.  A mask demonstrates a respect for other humans and an acknowledgement that there is a mysterious, highly contagious virus.  Senator McConnell wears a mask for the same reason anyone wears one - he doesn't want to die.

Living is all that really matters, surviving, protecting loved ones.  I know next to nothing about politics or disease but I do know something about avoiding Death.  Senator McConnell has a completely non-partisan, practical, futuristic approach to Covid-19.  He wears a mask.  That shows consideration for others, an acknowledgement of a deadly, fast-spreading, unknown disease that's killing thousands of Americans.  We're not victims, we'll survive this.  When we're done tearing down Confederate statues (Really?  They were traitors and slaveowners!) maybe someone will erect a Mitch Monument at Mt. McConnell.

I'm just so happy!  I found a Republican Senator that has respect for other things:  other humans, diseases, whatever.

Another Trump (Mengele) Experiment Victims? The Press

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Rearranging "Social Distancing"  in the Rose Garden
Using Reporters As Involuntary Test Subjects - President Mengele?

I have been writing a letter to my newborn niece, "explaining" the topsy-turvy life we now find ourselves in. I think I write fairly well, can describe places and people fairly accurately but recent events defy description.. I have seen many disturbing events over the years but today's "Musical Chairs of Death" caught my attention.  See those chairs scrunched up, close together?  Those chairs had been spread out, distanced.  "Our Cartoon President" decided to put the "Press" in closer rows,  will some contract Covid-19?  Trump doesn't know or care.  

1000 Americans are dying daily from Covid.  The "President"  has not responded to this crisis in any acceptable manner!  It doesn't matter who elected him  or why.   The only thing that's relevant is our leader is a tyrant!  And proud of it!

This country and it's inhabitants are uniquely averse to tyranny.  Fascism is equally repulsive to Americans.  You know who was a fascist?  Mussolini!  Google him.  Who did he resemble?  Was I right?  Or was I right?  (Fun fact: An Italian mob strangled him with piano wire.)

As an adult of a certain age, I feel responsible for handing a trashed planet to the "next" generation (like tossing some house keys to a haunted house to your kids,"just a noise.  You'll get used to it...")  I mean, I didn't  vote for the guy but I knew what a carnival barker was and could have predicted this, and we all knew it would not end well.  As grotesque and oddly hypnotic as the "show" is to watch, he must be yanked (old timey hooked) off the stage.  You know, declaw, defang, neuter, before he breaks anything else!

 Trump is cheap, right?  Stick a pricetag on everything.  He violates an Amendment?  Charge him.  Offends an ally?  Charge him more!  Embraces a tyrant or the American flag?  Multi-million $, make him bleed.  No appeal either, no Court.  Just a flat fine with immediate payment.

I sent my grandniece a pink teddy bear.  I'll send an account detailing the world events at her birth to her mom, Evie can read it when she's grownish.  I'll be dead (pause for laughter from the great beyond) so hopefully someone will read this and get a sense of how surreal, bizarre and horrific life on Earth is these days.    Can we fix it?

An All Good News Issue

Hello Fellow Travelers!

Amid all the D & D(Death & Destruction, I do overuse acronyms), there are little bright spots, soul restoring bits of real Americans, doing uniquely American things. You only have to look and see examples of invention and innovation everywhere!  I hope everyone saw some or all of the launch.  Today the Dragon docked!  It was great!  The NASA scientists were ecstatic!  It was international, joyous, inspirational and global.  Sending a rocket into space is uniquely unifying!  Age, mobility, even nationality - all are irrelevant.  There is only the one goal, a single objective, and we all can share it.  A global success! A triumph of science!

More examples of American innovation?  I need look no further than my in-laws who arranged a very creative and hilarious multi-state Zoom party for my graduating nephew.  If you've not been to a Zoom meeting before, it's on your computer and you sort of look like the opening credits of The Brady Bunch (everybody is in view and can socialize).  It was so great!   Family chatting from far-flung locations in real time.  Costumes,signs, an amazing slide show, errant pets...  You know what was not present?  Lingering.  Miserably bored offspring.  Dirty dishes.  When you said "Goodbye" you meant it.  Everybody hung up and ended it!    Will it replace family get-togethers?  Probably not.  But for a pandemic graduation, it totally worked!  Kudos to D. & J. for a first rate experience!

John Krazinski streamed a little show from his basement with his wife (Emily Blunt) and his two little girls called "Some Good News" or "SGN" where he reported cheerful, heartfelt stories with ridiculously happy endings.  Brad Pitt is the weatherman.  I look for good news now, anywhere I can find it because I think good news is going to be harder to find in the immediate future.  One of the many lessons I have learned the hard way is the point of view (wisdom?) of playing the "long game".  We will go to ball games, shows and campsites on the beach again .  We will get through this.  It's just going to be longer and a lot more difficult...

Coronavirus? No.

   Hello Fellow Travelers!

The Best Present -EVER!

My PS gave this to me a while back and it took three men to carry the boxes but with my other equipment I don't have to go to the gym when there are dodgy, scary, pandemics going around, like now!  I'm not scared, in fact, this "mystery disease" just confirms what I already knew: ((1)Trump doesn't care about anyone. and (2) cruise ships are "barges of doom").  I put safety and sanitation ridiculously high (like 1 and 2) on my list due to my "preexisting conditions" so I find myself readier than most to adapt to these alarming Covid19 circumstances.  The PS and I check in on my mother daily.  She lives in Arizona and doesn't really know what's going on, which is kind of good - she's forgotten about Trump and a mystery virus would just worry her.  We check in with the others around us, my niece is a nurse my other niece is expecting so I'm worried about both.  It's tedious but necessary to make changes for health.  I know.   Fighting a killer we know nothing about is difficult but not impossible.  I like solving puzzles, figuring out who the villain is.  Was Covid19 a distraction that got out of control?  (Yes, I'm that cynical)  We'll see.  Will Mitch McConnell be remembered in History as a patriot or a lower-rent Goebbels? (Time is running out, Senator, there can be only one "American Hero".  After that it's just rats jumping off the Titanic...)

I'm ten years cancer-free!  America will elect a human and we'll repair some of the damage of the last four years.  Since 2011 I'm a little more aware of everything around me.  I'm not afraid of viruses.  I'm not afraid of much in fact, I'm just happy to be here.  All my nieces and nephews and their kids deserve at least as good an earth as I grew up on,  We can fix this.

Then we owe the world a quality baked good.

Mitch & Me - V

Senator McConnell,This is an image of a black hole in space.  A black hole draws in and destroys everything that's in it's gravitational path.  A black hole is insatiable and unpredictable.  It's neither good or bad, it just is.  Since 2011, I have imagined brain cancer as a black hole. I am scheduled for my tenth annual (and last) MRI where I will probably defy expectations and continue to be a "medical miracle".  A black hole is death; no light, no color. just unending destruction.   Donald Trump is a black hole.  I am constantly worried about everyone I know and everyone else.  I'm ashamed and embarrassed by this President.  I thought he was just a bad joke, it's not funny anymore, now people are dying.

Trump was impeached and gave some ridiculous excuse of "looking for corruption" in Ukraine.  How droll.  Really.  The only interest "Our Cartoon President" has in Ukranian corruption would be (1) Do they have some new corruption? and (2) Where can I get some?  And did you see that poor President Zelinski?  He looked like he was a hostage.

Carrie Fisher said it best:  "Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi!  You're my only hope!"  Well, I guess you're Obi Wan.  Sorry.  Your nickname is the "Grim Reaper"?  I've met the GR, and you are not he.  You could ascend to an internationally recognized position of peace and leadership.  Or you could be remembered as Trump's henchman.  I think you know what to do, and I'm hoping it's not the "Goebbels" option.

Safety is my priority.  I whistled past the cemetery once and I have been extremely appreciative of life since then.  I may never walk again and I'm constantly spinning (thank you, brain tumor) I need a Captain America.  What I definitely do not need, and will not accept is a president who puts the entire planet, our very existence in jeopardy.

Again, you could be the one to unite Americans.  Mt. McConnell is waiting, but it won't wait too long.  Today's hero is tomorrow's rat, jumping off the Titanic.  Today though, an American McConnell who tells Trump "Oh, HELL no!" would be heralded around the world!  Every week this clown sinks a little lower, makes America weaker and more vulnerable.  You could fix this.  It would be seen as heroic but it's just really obvious, sadly inevitable.

Senator, I hope some office worker or sharpeyed intern sees this and sends me a response because I want someone to explain why this isn't a good idea.  Right now you're a senator, you could be much more.  I know this.

Mitch & Me III

Senator McConnell,

Which One Doesn't Belong?

This is your rational, communication-challenged friend in California.  Now is your time.  By doing your duty and applying a fair set of rules to the impeachment, you'll have done your elected job. and no one can assert otherwise.  You can say you made the "right", "decent" decision.    The American decision.  You could still be the hero we need and lead us out of this murky, venomous, stench.   No matter what happens history will portray your decisions as procedurally fair and even-handed.  The fact that Trump has infiltrated your party is just an unfortunate coincidence, he'd attach himself to any host.  Senator, I know you are a decent man, possibly a great leader.  You're definitely a good American (I mean why else would you be Senate leader?  Seriously, who needs the headache?)  You can make something wonderful out of this "fecal display".- or you can choose the parasite we elected and swirl down the "toilet of history"  You don't require brain surgery to know that's where this administration is headed.  You could surprise all Americans and speak the truth.  I would write a dedication speech at "McConnell Mountain" (like Rushmore but much better).  Stick with "President Parasite" and follow him down  the putrid pipes.  Make no mistake, hear that sound?  It's an unmistakable flushing... Or you could ascend to international hero status.  So what's it going to be?  Mt. Mitch or Trump Toilet?

Mitch & Me (#2)

Dear Senator McConnell,

It's me again, the non-walking, non speaking voter from California.  I still believe you can bring this nation together.  President Trump just killed the #2 Iranian, General Sean Connery.  The timing is a lot "curious".  A "Wag the Dog" scenario?  I wonder...  Not much.  Neither does anyone with a cerebellum..  I mean, really, doesn't Connery look like Soleimani's not-so-evil twin?  If this is a distraction it will come out.  I have no doubt that Trump would sacrifice American lives in a New York second to save  his skin politically.  Senator, please separate yourself from this clown.  Trump is toxic for us, he's cancerous, and I've had cancer.  It brings death.

See?  General Soliemani Connery

I hope you had a good holiday, I traveled across our country to the desert to see loved ones.  One of the gifts I gained from brain cancer is a strengthened and renewed appreciation for family connections. It's amazing that I'm above ground at all and I am grateful for every moment.  A side-effect to all of this gratitude is a selfish, stubborn and all-encompassing protectiveness, focus and watchfulness.  Senator, I thought you'd have a little more time, but killing Soleimani has started the stopwatch.  You can still be the guy who unites us but this is the time.  You can save the idea we were founded on but you have to make a stand now.

The sooner you do, the sooner we can be America again.

Americans are in danger.  The President does not care!

Please do  the right thing for your country, for yourself, just say "no"!

You'll be an international hero, Person-of-the-Year, Nobel Prize recipient!

You're the right person and now is the time.