New Shoes in the Rain

Greetings, all.  What day is it?  I have been way out of whack for almost two weeks.  I started a long-awaited vacation after work on Friday, July 11, and returned to work today.  And, yes, I know that it's Wednesday.  Isn't it? Anyway, the central event of this vacation was a trip to Chicago to attend our older grandson's basketball tournament there.  So my wife and I counted up my Marriott hotel points and found out where our daughter and grandson would be required to stay by the tournament organizers ("stay and play" is what this is called, pretty common in youth sports) and identified a Marriott property where I could use my points.  And if you visit here frequently enough, you know that I travel a great deal for my job and rack up hotel points routinely. I've always loved Chicago.  Took our son there to see the Cincinnati Reds play the Cubs at Wrigley Field on the north side of Chicago in 1991.  And this was before the Cubs ownership tur...

Greetings, friends! I come before you this morning in a buoyant mood, as I am now on vacation for about ten days!  I must confess that I don't believe I have ever taken a vacation from a job that was this long before.  I like it! I'm thinking what you're thinking in an overall sense....can it get worse in our country? The short answer is "yes," I am sad to say. I won't recap all of the individual events of the past week or so, but every time there's a natural disaster that heavily affects Americans, I cringe to think how poorly that disaster will be handled by our government.  My heart goes out to the people of the Hill Country of Texas for their unimaginable losses. But it's really the events that are created intentionally that are so bothersome. Let's go take over a park in Los Angeles, someone said!  Even though there aren't any of our "targets" there, let's go with a bunch of armed agents, some of them on horseback, and scare ...

Well, my friends, it seems we are through the looking glass with regard to a directional turn our United States Congress has taken, moving further into authoritarian territory than many of us ever thought possible. If you've been paying attention to the news you likely know as much as I do about this spending bill that just passed the House and therefore the Congress.  It is a mish-mash of a lot of programs that will be affected one way or another.  Bottom line is that the wealthy will receive more tax cuts, middle class people not so much, and less fortunate people will suffer deep cuts in social safety-net programs like Medicaid and SNAP benefits. But never fear, the Republicans have thought of most everything, as the cuts take effect in 2027, so the GOP can blame Democrats for these program cuts, as they so often do. Worth remembering that the President said more than once, and several times on camera, that he would veto any bill that contained cuts in Medicaid funding. ...