Tag: News

  • Talking to My Daughter about Ukraine

    It’s been very hard over the past week to talk to my daughter about the war in Ukraine. A hard conversation, but one that I know we need to have. She’s seven, and sees the world as good guys vs bad guys, which I do think makes explaining this war to her a little easier. Putin is the bad guy for starting this war, that’s the easy part. Everything else has been challenging.

    I have found that the “Mr. Rogers Rule” works really well. That rule is simple, “Look for the helpers. When things are bad, there are always people wanting to help.” Luckily, there are still parts of humanity that aren’t garbage, and we have been pointing out how the people of Poland, and other nations as well, are helping with the refugees; giving food, shelter, medical care, and safety. We have even talked about what we can do here, to help all the people over there.

    Now, we don’t purposefully have her watch the news. Most of the time, when we tell her that we are going to put the news on, she will leave the room as that stuff is boring to her. But now and then, she’ll walk into the livingroom and catch something, an image; a building on fire, a blown up tank, or a dead body in the street. My gut reaction is that I don’t want her to see these things, but I don’t want to shield her, nor stop her from asking questions about difficult subjects.

    The one thing that I think she is grasping is that war is not good. Even the “good” wars were still awful.

  • Election Delay? No, Trump is Trying to Distract You

    So, Trump wants to delay the election? I mean, that’s what he tweeted and, seems to me, that’s what everyone has been talking about for two days, right? But, he doesn’t have the authority to do that, and the Constitution won’t allow it, as there are specific dates which Congress and the President must be sworn in on. There is no way to change the election date.

    Trump is up to his old tricks of trying to distract, and change the conversation.

    If we are all talking about changing the election, then we aren’t talking about the huge drop in GDP. We aren’t talking about people about to lose their extra unemployment benefits. We aren’t talking about up to 30 million people facing eviction. We aren’t talking about Federal agents in the streets of Portland. We aren’t talking about BLM. We aren’t talking about Covid-19’s rising infection and death rates. And especially, we aren’t talking about John Lewis, a true American hero, who fought for justice, equality, and voting rights.

    There is so much going wrong, that we need to be focus and working for solutions.

    Don’t fall for the distraction.

     

  • No News Day: Farmer’s Markets

    I’m not anxious about the virus. Not sure if that is good or a bad thing.

    I also feel like I have overdosed on the Democratic party and the nomination process. I am sure part of that has to do with my guy underperforming, but hey… it’s nice to have a break from the Bloomberg ads.

    So, where does that leave me?

    Actually, it would be nice to take a break from the news and thinking about how it affects everything.

    What that leaves me with is wondering why I haven’t been able to get into farmer’s markets?

    (Yes, it will be that kind of blog today.)

    I used to work near the Union Square Farmer’s Market in New York, and they gets set up three times a week in the spring and summer… and when I found myself in it, it was mainly because I had to walk through it to get to the other side. Lot’s of slow-moving people picking over apples and lavender candles.

    When we were in California, and we lived sort of in the country, there were farmer’s markets everywhere, but only on Saturdays… which I found odd. Well, there was one on Sundays, but it was the ugly stepchild of markets; picked over, and lots of old hippies that seemed more interested in telling me that I really don’t “get” what they are trying to sell me.

    Either way, I kept expecting that I will go to one, and be inspired to cook something, or just get excited about farm to table sustainable food. And I know it’s important that we all do those things, and compost too, but I feel the steely eye of the farmer watching me, hoping that I make eye contact so they can tell me a story about their farm.

    That’s it… farmer’s markets.

    Thank you…

  • The Barr Saga Continues

    I know the NYTimes is reporting that Barr is upset with Trump for calling himself the law of the land, but the cynical part of me is still having a hard time believing that is true. I guess there is a chance that Barr has been blindsided by Trump, and that Barr honestly wants to do the right thing… Yeah, I just don’t buy it.

    What I see is more along the lines of Pandora’s box or a tube of toothpaste. Trump is out and you can’t put him back in. That’s what makes me think is happening to Barr and the Justice Department right now. They cannot contain the President anymore after the impeachment trial. I believe that is why Trump’s pardons and commutations happened yesterday. That was Trump flexing muscle, saying to Barr and Justice, that if you convict my people, I will just release them, and belittling your work.

    Also, to digress for a second… The people who got the pardons and commutations all committed white collar crimes. It’s also like Trump is saying that bribery, tax evasion, corruption aren’t really crimes. I find it funny, as that those are the crimes that have always been swirling around Trump.

    What is left is for Barr to resign, and that places us all in a “devil you know,” situation. I thought Jeff Sessions was a bad choice, but then we got Matthew Whitaker who was amazingly unqualified, which lead to Barr who was supposedly was going to be “an adult in the room,” but we see how that worked.

    So… who is hiding out there to be next?

  • There Goes That Joke

    First, I acknowledge that with everything going on in the world, this is not a big deal.

    But

    Using the word “nasty” has been ruined.

    My wife and I are of the age when “Miss Jackson if you’re nasty!” was, and is, cool as shit. As a couple, it is used playfully, silly way. Such as, we are flipping channels and the wife comments that she hates that show, which I say, don’t be nasty, and you can guess what her response is, Miss Jackson if you’re nasty.

    And Trump has ruined it.

    We have both caught ourselves about to use the work jokingly with each other, and then we pull back. We don’t want to even use the same words as him, even if we both clearly recognize that the other is joking.

    I mean, we didn’t have this issue with, “binders full of women.”

    And I know that it will be coming in the news, because it is when any woman stands up to Trump, and clearly points out how stupid he is, that’s when the “nasty” word is rolled out. Like clock work.

    What I feel is that I don’t want to use “nasty” in any context now. To do so feels like I am empowering Trump’s use of the word against women.

    I also know this is a little silly, but it is the game with language; who can get to a word first and redefine it to their own purposes.

    Just sucks