You can't make this S**T up!

 

By the time you read this, two weeks will have passed since I wrote this entry.  Normally, this wouldn't be much of a concern, but one of these news items will likely add even more fuel to a scandal hitting the press.  The other of these items affects something more precious to me: the separation of church and state.

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I'll start out by talking about the most important of these issues: the proposed IRS settlement regarding the Johnson amendment and churches' political speech rights.  For the past 70 years, churches have been allowed to exercise their free speech rights to advocate for certain causes, but NOT endorse political candidates or parties.  This has helped maintain the separation of church and state.  Now, with the Orange Snowflake in charge, I expect to see preachers and their churches abuse their churches' tax free status and directly meddle in politics. The effects of this change may take months, if not years to have an effect on the American body politic. But it has the potential to cause great harm to minority religious groups to practice their own faiths.   

We've seen what happened in a country when religious leaders got unchecked control of Iran.  Forty years ago, Iran was a prosperous, modern, and moderately free (if one didn't offend the Shah) nation.  Now, religious police patrol the streets, and the people have to do their best to live within a religious authoritarian state.  Do we want that here?

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Yet, the thing that may be the most consequential in the short term is the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.  The Daily Beast reported that the FBI has the Epstein prison tape with no missing minute.  There was another report (I can't find the source) that someone in an orange jumpsuit was near Epstein's cell on the night he allegedly committed suicide.  Hmmm.  Could this be a rub out?  The Orange Snowflake acknowledged that Virginia Giuffre was stolen from his employ at Mar-a-Largo by Epstein. My first question is: Why did the snowflake hire an under aged female to be employed at Mar-a-Lago's spa? Then, I ask: What was going on at Mar-a-Lago.  According to an article in Vanity Fair, the snowflake and Epstein had a "Calendar Girl" party  where they were the only 2 males present.  Even MAGA loyalists want answers now!

No matter how much the snowflake tries to deflect things, I think this scandal has legs.  It's one thing when the snowflake abuses the power of his office and accepts a $400,000,000 bribe from the Qatari government.  But when it comes to the combination of possible adolescent child abuse coupled with lies from the snowflake saying that he'd release all the files on Epstein, it's something else.  MAGA is upset, as this is one betrayal they can not deal with.

The snowflake can't have it both ways.  If he is innocent, why not release all of the files.  The worst that can be said about him in that case would be that he once associated with the wrong person and cut off contact when he felt Epstein had crossed the line.  But if he is guilty, then MAGA rightfully is upset, as the snowflake is as much a part of the swamp that he claimed he wanted to drain.  This will likely stay in the news for weeks to come.  I certainly hope that this is the case! 

Thoughts on a past lost to time

 

 
Something got me thinking about my former travel partner.  I'll admit that it was because of my stupidity that I lost her as a friend. Yet, I'm not really sure about the quality of the friendship we once shared.  Thinking back on it, there may have been a codependency factor involved that made the dissolution of the friendship more painful for the two of us.

I'm very glad that FCP has had two happy events occur in her life in the past few months.  And I'm sad that I couldn't be there to share them with her.  Yet, she's not with me as I explore things with RQS, building up a shared set of happy experiences..  We both lost a lot when the friendship ended, but this is a part of life.

One of the things that FCP said to me in the process of cutting off communications was that I did not betray XGFJ, and that she is glad that I am communicating with her again.  What she doesn't want to see is the fact that XGFJ betrayed me.   Although I have forgiven XGFJ for her actions, I doubt that we'll be any closer than we are now - two people with a shared past that have less and less to talk about as time pulls us away from each other.

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But enough about FCP and XGFJ.  There are other things that time has erased from my life.  For example, the older I get, the harder it gets for me to remember many of the details of my late wife.  She had a habit of saying "N double-A s t i" for "Nasty".  There were many more quirks that she had, but most of them have moved into inaccessible areas of my memory.  I miss those memories, yet it is a good thing that most of them are inaccessible.  It would be a bad thing to bore RQS with things about my late wife's life, and for her to bore me with things about her late husband's life.  We are only able to share the most important things about our late spouses' lives, and we understand the losses that the other has felt....

There's a part of me that mourns the loss of the career I enjoyed (for the most part) for the better part of 40 years.  The opportunity to work as a programmer again is tantalizing, as it was the type of work I most enjoyed.  Yet, I'm way past my prime, and I would not gain much from retooling for work best done by a younger person. Yet, I could sacrifice some of the time I have left to me to end my working career doing the type of work that gave me pleasure when I started in the workforce.

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One of the things I miss since I've been employed at my present job is reading for the enjoyment of it.  By the time my day ends at the office, my mind is fried.  I've made so many micro decisions that I have no energy left to make any of the big ones.  This has resulted in an inability to clean up my apartment, and an inability to do much of the reading I enjoy so much.  Hopefully, by the time I get to take my next long vacation, I will have recharged my energy enough so that both my apartment has finally gotten cleaned up and that I've regained my ability to enjoy a long book.  I'd hate for these things to have gotten lost with time.

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All of us have friends and family we have lost over the years. Many of us have had to reinvent ourselves to live with a purpose in life. As for me, I live to learn - about myself, about others, and about the world in which we live.  From each loss comes an opportunity to grow.  And I intend to use those opportunities to grow instead of being burdened by them....

 

Something I have to say....

 

There is a reason I chose this picture to lead off an entry in this blog.  Only the person who I hope reads this will understand why it is here....

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Recently, I received  a communication from someone who will remain nameless and faceless - as desired by that person.  It was a picture that was sent in response to this post ("An acquaintance has cancer"), saying it was a favor.  The friend I was with when I received this picture interpreted this communication as something other than a favor, confirming my read on things. (I could have been totally wrong on intent.  So I hope this person understands why I felt this way.)  Without going into any more details than this, I hope this person and her friend had a great time at their gathering.

Unfortunately, my actions in the past hurt this person very much, and all I can do anymore is to say "I'm Sorry".  Sadly, I feel that it will never be enough for her. This is a place where I burnt a bridge without meaning to, and nothing I can do or say can help alleviate this person's pain.  There are only so many "Mea Culpas" one can say before one stops caring to say "I'm Sorry" to someone who has been wronged.  One can only wear a Hair Shirt for just so long....

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In regard to another person who will also go nameless and faceless, I got to thinking that this person hurt me without meaning to.  An action noted in a statement of hers  in a recent conversation echoed an action that could have originally been her way of trying to get my attention, and it backfired big time.  Again, with things playing out the way they did, I'm not sure if anything much can be done to bridge more of the gap between us.  It'd take much more work from both of us to do that, and I haven't yet seen or heard what's needed from her if she wants to take the next step towards a solid friendship.  (Yet, I can hope this happens.)

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In both cases, there was cause for a person to feel betrayed.  And in both cases, things blew up and got out of control.  In the recent case, I only saw this picture with negative intent.  It might have been better had it not been sent, as the messages exchanged afterwards brought up ill feelings for both of us.  Yet, when I think about it, this was a case of two people who didn't trust each other, both finding out that after a negative incident that relearning how to trust a person and their motives can and will take some time.  It's never easy to cut a person some slack after a lot of hurt feelings.

 

 

 

PS: I hope that both people referenced here won't get too upset at my mention of this picture and the associated text messages....