It’s a beautiful Saturday morning with the promise of sunshine and spring temperatures all day. February is almost over. It would be a pretty much perfect day except that we are now at war with Iran. Apparently, the Board of Peace got bored with peace.
I have no idea how my Trump-supporting friends and family members (who are fortunately very few in number) feel about last night’s bombing raids and the wider war that will almost certainly follow. I’m not going to argue with them anymore. There’s more than enough proof that he’s the worst President in US history. There’s plenty of proof that he’s the worst American ever, full stop. What can I say that they don’t already know?
War with Iran was inevitable, I guess, and it’s not at all surprising that it’s happening the day after the Clintons sat for depositions before the House Oversight Committee. I’m beyond furious that Hillary Clinton had to sit through this clown show answering questions from people who aren’t worthy to sit in the same room with her. I’m so sick of seeing her made a scapegoat for the worst people. I’m sick of the He-Man Woman Haters Club that runs this country.
*****
It’s Sunday now. Three Americans died yesterday, along with many Iranians, including about 100 students of a girls’ school in Tehran. And I am once again sick. Sick in both senses of the word, that is - I’m horrified and sickened by the death and destruction, but I’m also just sick. Chills, fever, and some other symptoms that you don’t need to know about. Gross.
I absolutely hate being sick. Sometimes when I feel overwhelmed, I think that a well-timed positive COVID test or a quick stomach virus would be just the thing. But then I get that little quick stomach virus and I’m just miserable.
But that’s enough about me.
*****
It’s Monday now, and I’m better, I think. I thought a little bit yesterday about sickness and why it exists and what we’re meant to learn from it. From our own sickness, we learn to appreciate our health; and from the sickness of others, we learn compassion; or rather, we should learn compassion. Illnesses are clues about the human body that medical science can eventually decipher, and when all the clues are solved, they can cure all disease or even eliminate it altogether. And then what? Everyone just lives until age 95 or so? The place would get crowded.
Wait, is that it? Is the earth too crowded? Is that why crusty old men start wars every decade or so? Just a big old Marie Kondo clear out the human clutter population purge? I took a break to watch the President’s speech today; or rather, I watched it until he veered off topic and started yammering about pile drivers and curtains. This took about five minutes. How is it possible for anyone to be so evil and yet so entirely unserious? And how is it possible that this is the person who is now running the country with the literal power of life and death?
*****
It’s Tuesday and I worked in the office so I didn’t see today’s Q&A session. I also didn’t see any of Kristi Noem’s Senate hearing, but I read that even Republican Senators were roasting her. And they probably roasted her for all the wrong reasons - because she’s making Trump look bad and because (of course) she’s a woman - but I don’t even care because she’s just that awful. If Kristi is roasting then I do not care who is turning the spit. Just make sure she’s done on both sides.
*****
And now Ecuador? We’re at war in Ecuador? What in the actual hell?
OK, what else is going on? Let’s talk about Maryland weather for a few minutes. It snowed all day on Monday, and the high temperature was about 35 degrees. In Maryland, March comes in like a jerk. March comes in like Stephen Miller around here. And it’s way too early to predict how March will go out, but we’re expecting temperatures in the 70s and low 80s next week. Madness.
We could also talk about books. I just finished Zadie Smith’s White Teeth, about which I will have much to say. Right now, I’m reading The Little Princesses, Marion Crawford’s memoir of her time as governess to Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret when they were little girls whose father wasn’t supposed to become King. It’s surprisingly good, but there’s quite a sad history behind it. I’ll report on that one later, too.
*****
Well, well, well. No more private jets and high-fashion tactical gear for you, Kristi Noem.
Noem’s firing is actually neither good news nor bad news. It’s fun to see terrible people get their well-deserved comeuppances, but nothing is really going to change. Her successor is just as terrible and possibly even more stupid, which scarcely seems possible, but we’re a long way from the bottom. Senator Markwayne Mullin is the guy who tried to square off with the President of the Teamsters during a Senate hearing. He’s just dumb enough to think that a few MMA fights prepared him to go mano a mano with a Teamster. Sean O’Brien would have dog-walked Markwayne Mullin.
Senator Mullin also made some comments that seemed to indicate that he did not know that the Ayatollah who died in the US bombing raid last week was not the same Ayatollah who oversaw the attack on the American embassy in Tehran in 1979. Khomeini (old guy, now dead) and Khamenei (new guy, also now dead): two different guys. Hopefully, soon-to-be Secretary Mullin is doing his homework and will assume his new role with a basic understanding of the Iranian hierarchy seeing as they are one of the chief threats to homeland security right now. And at least he’ll be out of the Senate. Always a bright side.
*****
At this point, my blog is nothing more than a personal journal, so I’m not even going to worry about tying this post together in a coherent and logical way. You didn’t come here for logic and coherence, did you? If the answer is yes, then you're in the wrong place. Allow me to introduce myself. Please refer to every other entry in this blog ever. Please refer to the rest of my life.
*****
It was a bleak and dreary week, but it’s Friday now. I love my job but I’m tired. A little downtime might be just what the doctor ordered. Still, weekends are dodgy under Trump 47. God willing, the President will restrict the bomb-dropping to the countries where we’re already at war. Hopefully, we won’t wake up on Sunday morning to find that we sent troops into Canada or that we’re blockading Guam. I was going to be really petty and say that I hoped it would rain on Mar a Lago all weekend long, but we can’t have him bored and restless. I guess I’ll have to indulge my pettiness by celebrating Kristi Noem’s downfall. Meanwhile, keep your dogs inside. Someone has a lot of time on her hands.
