Political Ping Pong

 As much as I gripe about Trump and his merry gang of morons, you must understand that I will likely feel the same way with any administration anymore.

Face it: the Democrats who come in (IF they come in), will likely be all about impeaching and keeping Trump at bay. And in 2028, if they get someone into the White House, there will be a huge amount of grief that will have people begging for Republicans again.

I've been feeling this distaste for some time, probably since 2001, even before 9/11 happened. W was a royal clown and everyone knew it, and somehow we were stuck with him for 8 years of a go nowhere war that yielded nothing but an economic and housing collapse.

Obama was a surprise to me, but given the economy of 2008, I knew why he won. The nation wanted a change. And we got one.It was also a time of left-leaning policies coming to life as well as ACA, I was not fond of many of those policies, but what's a new dad to do?

Then came Trump 1.0. Having been familiar with him in the world since around 1984, I knew we were going to be in for a ride. His restructring of taxes put an end to our summer vacation getaways since the large refunds (from higher taxes) that funded flights and rental cars disappeared. And really, if it had not been for COVID, I think his second term was a practical shoo-in.

For the record, I agree with all of the investigations and Supreme Court rulings: he lost, and the Congressional turnover of 2018 foreshadowed his 2020 loss in some way.

Then came Biden. I did not vote for him, I thought he was too damn old to be handed the job with the COVID mess not yet cleaned up. His term was actually part of a low time for me in terms of mental health.

And here we are in Trump 2.0 and after the first year of it, we are in high price hell. No matter who wins these midterms (they are as unpleasant as the school tests), we as the people will lose.

And why do we lose? We as a society are complacent. We are convinced that politically there are good guys and bad guys.

They are all bad guys. They all have an agenda. And that agenda is money and power no matter who the party is.

And it has been that way since we overthrew the British 245 years ago.

Oh don't get me wrong, there were political heroes in history, but much of their heroism came before they entered the political arena.

I still admire Lincoln. I admire Teddy Roosevelt. I admire Thomas Jefferson. I admire JFK.

But they had their faults, they were human. Yet they were put on pedestals as symbols of greatness.

And between those people came some nincompoops. Tyler...Fillmore...Pierce...2 Johnsons...Arthur...Harding...Hoover. Rise and fall, fall and rise.

Sometimes it is not so much the Presidents but the people who are around them who make them look bad, hirees with their own agendas who use their employment as business oppurtunity as well as a legal shield.

Coming back to the present, I think Trump has those kinds of people because they know he adores flattery and mistakes it for loyalty. Same for Biden, same for Obama, same for W....hell, same for Clinton and Bush Sr and Reagan and Carter and Ford and Nixon and LBJ and probably further back than that.

It's all the same as far as I'm concerned. I grew up with those clowns in power and I will die with other clowns in power.

There is no real Republican or Democrat anymore. Those are just names representing a past more gentle rivalry. Now it is a volley for control.

Control of us. What we say, what we do. And some of those politicos are themselves controlled by industry. Inustry that wants to control what we eat and drink and take as medicine to make us think we are being cured.

And like I said earlier, it has been going on for over 2 centuries.

COVID part 2

 There once was a time called COVID

It came long after the poet Ovid

This limerick is so dumb

I should have kept mum

And should have instead gotten loaded.

Yeah, that was as dumb as the 3 years we had to deal with that "pandemic"...more on pan later.

During the uncertain summer of 2020, I did a ton of walking. It was truly an obsession at that point. Not exactly unhealthy, but I was working the hell out of my feet and legs. I would walk early in the morning before the high heat came. I would generally be back home by 8am. The rest of the day was sleeping, posting brags of my steps, and just a lot of utter time wasting. But that weight got down to the mid 180s by July and I was proud of myself. 

To this day, I am of the opinion that if I had not gone walking psycho and eating low carb, I would have died before I hit 50. 

One day I brought a colleague friend Candice's son's artwork home that had been left at school. In turn, she invited me and the fam to come swimming at her house sometime, so we took her up on it. Apart from that, we hung out with our friend Kimberly and her fam for a few game nights here and there. Not a lot of things to do since many places were closed in Vegas and elsewhere.

School was a bit delayed due to Nevada educational "experts" trying to figure out how to teach kids from home...or rather for some of us, teaching kids on the computer via Google Meet sitting alone in our classrooms. 

The first day was a big hiccup as Cox WiFi had no idea how the first day would be but it got straightened out. 

The next couple of months were really just an adjustment of figuring out synchronous time and asynchronous time. Lots of assignments graded on Google classroom. Math tests were an absolute joy,not! 

As we had begun a Friday coffee rotation when things were normal, Candice and I kept that up, only I would drive up to her house to either receive coffee or give it, and have a small how are ya chat. It was the one thing that helped to maintain a sense of normalcy.

It all went pretty much that way until mid November. Our 14th wedding anniversary in fact. COVID cases had risen so much that EVERYONE had to teach from home. So I rigged up a workstation at home. Coffee with Candice was put on hold for a few months.

My beloved stepdad Don passed away on January 1, 2021.

Before the workplace displacement, the 2020 election had taken place. Ok, time to get on some people's bad sides. Trump pretty much told us he would contest the results if he lost, the true meaning of foreshadowing. He lost. He raised hell as did his enablers.

Then came January 6, 2021. Hell rained upon Washington D.C. that day in a display I am still sickened by. People broke into the Capitol and wreaked havoc and damage. People werere injured and killed. 4 years later, many perpetrators were pardoned. They were not heroes.

Nobody ever found any solid evidence that the election was rigged, even Trump's hand-picked Supreme Court ruled against him. Yet, some members of Congress were ready to vote to overturn the results before that dreadful day, just because they were used to appeasing him.

All right all right, rant over. I think, looking back on it all was that we were in a strange time trying to cope with it as best as we could. If COVID had not weighed us down, I have no doubt that Trump would have won by a landslide. 

Oh one other thing...I did not want Joe Biden, either. His 4 years were no picnic for anyone as far as I could tell.

The COVID shots were becoming a requirement if you did not want to constantly tested. So I took the 2 parter in March.

In April, everyone was back full time to finish the year. It was great to meet my class in person. And the coffee exchange was back in action.

And through all of this, I walked...and also began some bike riding.