Big Birthdays and Big News Story(s)

Never a dull moment in America these days...

I celebrated my 85th birthday all last week. First a productive 3-day artist retreat out of town in McMinnville with my best friend of 30 years and some interesting adventures with Claude AI. (More about me ‘n’ Claude another day. One thing I learned is he doesn’t want to be called Claudette or Claudine.)

It rained during our entire visit, but we still ventured forth. As I’ve noted before, the Pacific Northwest does moss very well. Classiest driveway ever!

I also connected over coffee with a previously virtual friend, writer and fellow feng shui enthusiast Emily Grosvenor, who wrote a fantastic book on personalizing your home space, Find Yourself At Home, which I wish I’d written.

Then my two far-flung sons arrived in town for a wonderful laugh-filled weekend. For a few days I ignored the news, which was perhaps the best gift of all.

Spring is here—en route to the Japanese Garden

Alas, the news has a way of elbowing its way back in. Monday night it was hard to ignore the news of the Signal text chain between top administration officials that inexplicably included the editor of The Atlantic. (Gift link to read Goldberg’s piece here.) I’m reminded of this quote from The Great Gatsby:

They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that held them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…

Before you read my (incomplete) list of more smashed up things below, do you not wonder at what point of destruction President MuskTrump will be satisfied? At what point will the co-president look out over the ashes of our country and feel sufficiently noticed, loved and admired and their empty soul filled?

And at what point will America’s citizens realize that they have gotten NOTHING from this administration to improve their own precarious circumstances. NOTHING. The impact of the actions below impact every single one of us.

Here’s where America is today

Thanks to President MuskTrump’s authoritarian agenda—so far:

• America’s national security and global reputation is in tatters, thanks to an administration packed with inexperienced, unvetted idiots whose main qualifications include whiteness, maleness, sexual and legal improprieties, lack of soul or moral compass, and continuous praise of and loyalty to Dear Leader. [Latest example: the Signal text chain]

• her long-standing democratic allies in Europe and elsewhere are now “enemies”

• her president infatuated with (in cahoots with?) the authoritarian leaders of America’s long-standing enemies, especially Russia

• her billionaires allowed to cheat (more) and pay even less taxes because the IRS has been shredded, while their tax cuts remain intact

• her free press muzzled by threats of costly litigation

• her legal system attacked—judges who don’t toe the administration line get threatened with impeachment, law firms and attorneys who represent Democratic clients crippled by pointed executive orders

• her laws ignored because the King has absolute power and who gives a shit about Congress (they’re already cowed anyway).

• her schools impoverished, students left behind, and universities crippled by funding cuts and subject matter restrictions;

• her stellar reputation for scientific research in tatters—scientists working on cures for cancer, space exploration, renewable energy left high and dry (because… see above)

• Her farmers, pilots and people in the path of catastrophic weather events are caught unaware because of cuts to NOAA (National Weather Service, the FAA…)

• her veterans and senior citizens in limbo because the VA and SSA are being gutted, Medicaid and Medicare close behind.

• her black, female and minority veterans buried at the Arlington National Cemetery scrubbed from the cemetery’s website to comply with Trump’s desire to remove diversity, equity and inclusion from all government materials. (And those people from public life?)

• Immigrants detained without due process…

• This is a very partial list… there’s so much more

And here’s the tunnel we’re already hurtling down:

• America’s citizens dying of preventable diseases because the CDC was turned over to a crazy anti-vaxxer;

• her air unbreathable, water undrinkable and soil contaminated because environmental regulations are now toast;

• more forests burning, crops dying, rivers flooding, tornados twirling, and sea levels rising because “climate change isn’t real,” so let’s ignore it

• her president selling off America’s parts (parks and public lands, buildings, government services, etc) to the highest private bidders, meanwhile pimping his own cryptocurrency.

• prices rising, inflation rising, stock market falling, small businesses in pain… thanks to tariffs and the erratic whims and declarations of President MuskTrump.

At what point will America wake up and say, “Have you no sense of decency?”

What about the courts?

Congress seems to be paralyzed. Meanwhile many of these issues are being litigated in the courts—more every day. But court proceedings take for-fucking-ever, and Trump never met a negative judgment he wouldn’t appeal. It’s a high stakes game currently playing out in the courts, and it’s important to understand the width and depth of it. So let me heartily recommend to you a fascinating conversation between Jessica Yellin and Amanda Doyle. They dig into the genius/dastardly strategies actually behind the Venezuala gang roundup and the attacks on DC legal firms. It’s a troubling must-listen.

[Jessica is an award-winning political reporter formerly at CNN, who writes great explanations at News Not Noise and Amanda is Glennon Doyle’s brilliant attorney sister of their ground-breaking podcast, We Can Do Hard Things.]

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A reminder—you CAN do something:

The resistance is building, crowds are gathering, voices are speaking out.

• Amy’s List for Staying Focused, Sane, and Engaged. It’s a thorough list, worth reading all of it.

• Thirty Lonely But Beautiful Actions, from Garrett Bucks.

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Nevertheless, Put Yourself in the Way of Beauty

More from that front yard in McMinnville, just foliage:

And an extravagant birthday bouquet from my ex and his partner. If you live in Portland, Sammy’s is the florist.