Readers, Welcome to my blog (formerly Birds, Blooms, Books, etc). I'm entering a new decade taking on the challenge of moving from Maryland after living there 46 years and learning about my new home here in New England in the Live Free or Die state - New Hampshire. Join me as a write this new chapter of my life.
I don't know how anyone can blog every day. I know I tried it in December but I chose an easy topic to address day after day: Christmas ornaments & decorations. I could write more than one of those a day and schedule them for posting.
I can't live on this computer - there's just too much else requiring my attention.
Exercising at least 4x a week is one of those things. If I'm going to do it I must get to it in the morning. Afternoon is much too late.
Homeschooling Granddaughter #1 once a week, usually Thursdays, is another time commitment.
Yesterday was a lighter day for me because she had a standardized math test to do on line. It's still required my being present and dealing with the laptop when it froze up. A call to testing center brought her back on line to complete the test.
Next week I have Granddaughters #3 & #4 here all week from Buffalo. Sunday we drive to Utica to meet up then return home. We repeat that the following Sunday.
I'll be lucky to even turn on my computer while they are here.
I know I've been resorting to reposting The Contrarian articles and below is a portion of today's:
Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) has found his voice and his moment in his reelection campaign. In a recentrip-roaring speech, he clobbered the Trump regime for its economic blunders, moral rot, and increasing inability to hide either from the American people.
His most memorable line hit the regime’s connections to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and the wider lack of accountability from rich, powerful men. “Now, you remember we were told that MAGA was for working-class Americans. Do you remember that? But this is a government of, by, and for the ultra-rich,”he said. “It is the wealthiest Cabinet ever. This is the Epstein class, ruling our country. They are the elites they pretend to hate.” The powerful analogy to Epstein goes beyond the subset of men who had direct dealings with him. It points to the billionaire class that plunders the economy, compromises institutions (e.g., news outlets), and supports a cruel, racist autocrat.
Ossoff continued ticking off Trump’s domestic outrages. “So, prices are up, jobs are going away, Medicaid and school lunches are slashed, nursing homes are getting defunded. If you’re Steve Bannon and your pitch was Trump for the forgotten man and woman, how do you sell any of this?” Instead of fighting for average Americans, Trump is “literally closing rural clinics and hospitals to cut taxes for George Soros and Elon Musk,” Ossoff observed.
His forcefully delineated Trump’s racism, sickness, and corruption:
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com
Ossoff: "You're seeing what I'm seeing, right? The president posting about the Obamas like a Klansman."
On ICE he thundered: “Why are roving gangs of masked men — who look like they couldn’t pass the Army physical exam — dressed up like pretend Delta Force operators on our streets, demanding papers, dragging people from their cars, and shooting people to death?” (Though Ossoff has been a strong critic of Trump’s draconian and illegal immigration raids, he did not dismiss voters’ legitimate concerns about a secure border. “The American people demand and deserve secure borders,”Ossoff said last month. “The American people also believe every human being should be treated with dignity and respect.”)
But I'm not going to keep this up or at least not post the articles in entirety. For the rest of this article go to The Contrarian here.
I haven't even set up my Books Read for 2026. Maybe I'll skip it this year.
Any way you'll be seeing less of me for while. If I'm able to I'll try to stop by your blogs.
If there are never adverse consequences for those who abuse others, break laws, and lie about their misdeeds, we should stop promising “accountability.” With every revelation from the Epstein-Trump files and every maddening redaction of a perpetrator’s name, we see there is very little to no “accountability” for those who preyed on children, feigned ignorance of child rape, and/or continued to pal around with Jeffrey Epstein after he plead guilty to two charges, served (cushy) prison time, and registered as a sex offender.
(Credit: Christopher Ames)
Before any files were released, the perpetrators’ apologists said we did not know the names of those to hold accountable. Now, with so many perpetrators’ and enablers’ names revealed, some will no doubt argue we cannot hold anyone accountable. “Where will it end?” Well, when every single person receives punishment commensurate with their conduct. Indeed, the number of Epstein associates is evidence of a monstrously extensive pedophilia racket — not the excuse for doing nothing. We are left to grapple with a horrifying reality: Throughout the worlds of politics, finance, sports, and academia, child rape has been all too common and tolerated.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’sinfamous assertionis bone-chilling in its moral obtuseness. “It isn’t a crime to party with Mr. Epstein,” he said. For starters, what onedidduring the “partying” may certainly have been illegal. Beyond that, the notion that everyone not convicted of a crime escapes all blame is morally obnoxious and repulsive. Obviously, criminal punishment for those who raped or facilitated rape provides accountability for one segment of the cesspool of wrongdoers. But theremustbe some form of accountability for those who knew rapes were occurring and did nothing, as well as for those who, after Epstein’s crimes were made public, continued to socialize with him, thereby normalizing his conduct.
Where do we start? Complete transparency is essential. Every non-victim’s name must be disclosed. When criminal prosecution (state or federal) is possible, that should be vigorously pursued. Members of the administration who continued to cover up elite men’s association should be fired, face impeachment, and/or be referred for professional conduct. But all facets of society need to be engaged for those who frequented Epstein’s parties with underage girls and/or continued to socialize with him after his conviction. Professional associations and licensing bodies must examine their members’ conduct; government departments must create guidelines to assess their employees; sports leagues must review franchise owners’ and players’ conduct; and shareholders and boards of directors must establish standards for management.
Beyond Epstein’s pedophilia cover-up, we must face up to the entire culture of impunity, cruelty, and unaccountability that defines the Trump regime. What will we do about all those who committed crimes, undermined democracy, and lied to the American people? Real accountability must not stop at Trump and his Cabinet but extend to larger circles of policy implementers, party supporters, and civil society enablers.
(Credit: busra İspir)
History provides some guidance. When the Nazis fell from power, the apartheid government in South Africa collapsed, and Communist governments crumbled, thousands and thousands of people had blood on their hands. The successors to those regimes didnotthrow up their hands, declare, ‘Too many evil people, too hard to punish!’or propose that it was “time to get onto something else” (as Trump demands we do with Epstein). Even when the perpetrators technically were following laws of those regimes (unlike Epstein’s grotesquely illegal child rape ring), the successor governments employed trials and criminal punishment, public naming and blaming, and ostracism from leadership roles in the new society to reckon with the past. Entire countries wrestled with the issues, and mass public education began (and continues to this day), with the aim to deter such conduct in the future. We had better start thinking about and enforcing “accountability” if we hope to see any for the Trump regime.
The task seems especially daunting in the case of the MAGA regime, given the hundreds — if not thousands — who are abusing immigrants, engaging in corruption, lying to courts, and/or violating their oaths of office or professional ethics. When we consider that Trump likely will pardon hundreds (thousands?) of his minions (and we can only imagine the hue and cry that we move on, rather than dwell on the past), the urgency of actually addressing “accountability” becomes clear.
When it comes to Trump regime lawbreakers, accessories to torture at hellholes like CECOT, corrupted prosecutors pursuing Trump’s enemies, officials lying under oath, or plotters aiming to steal the 2026 election, accountability must begin with a collection of facts. Congress, bar committees, commissions, state and federal prosecutors, and other bodies can assemble evidence and encourage whistleblowers to come forward.
In 2022,Protect Democracyissued a report, “Toward Non-Recurrence,” to grapple with how countries “emerging from periods of autocratic abuses of power” deal with accountability. Protect Democracy’s report explained that:
Mechanisms ranging from commissions of inquiry to public apologies and professional sanctioning of dangerous behavior should be considered as part of broader accountability schemes working towards non-recurrence. These mechanisms should be viewed as self-reinforcing rather than competing.
We have done this before, be it through the Warren Commission, the 9/11 Commission, the Jan. 6 Committee, or the Church Committee.
Findings should be disclosed publicly so we can rebut disinformation, victims can pursue their tormentors (as happened when KGB and Stasi files were opened), policy makers can undertake reforms, and, in the case of Trump’s despotism, public education can begin.
Once we know who did what to whom, it will be necessary to determine gradations of wrongdoing. Who broke the law? Who went along with orders? Who helped normalize/protect the worst offenders?
Accountability does not necessarily mean criminal prosecution. Accountability can be in the form of civil damages, firing from government and positions of trust, permanent disqualification from government service, disbarment (for lawyers), military justice (for current and former military), disqualification from management of publicly traded companies (in cases of bribery or other corruption), suspension from government contracting, and private sector sanctions (e.g., loss of tenured faculty positions or law partnership).
As the Protect Democracyreport put it, “Unearthing a full and truthful record of wrongdoing, rebuilding robust social norms governing acceptable political behavior, and constructing a shared narrative may be just as important as enforcing consequences for transgressions.”
Compelling Americans not to avert their eyes from the real harm done to individuals, groups, and our democracy might help us re-establish a culture of accountability and reach consensus about standards of public ethics. (For example, we may want to impose government censure and/or civil liability for those in government who fail to report wrongdoing.) That national reckoning could help avoid a repeat of the calamitous Trump regime.
In short, we need to get serious about accountability…or get rid of the term. Vaguely promising accountability without discussing what that entails and with no consideration of concrete mechanisms to achieve it will only perpetuate cynicism, loss of trust, and a general atmosphere of impunity. That applies to the Epstein cohort — and to Trump’s entire anti-democratic regime.
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Why did it take Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) until Friday, after Trump had posted a video portraying former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes, to acknowledge that Donald Trump is a hard-bitten racist? And why has legacy mediafor so longavoided calling Trump racist?
Perhaps if Scott, or any number of lawmakers, had spoken up as strongly when Trump questioned Obama’s birth certificate or rode down the golden escalator in 2015 and launched his campaign while calling Mexican immigrantsdrug dealers, criminals, and rapists, Trump would not have won the presidency the first time. Perhaps if the legacy media had identified Trump as a shameless racist years ago, the political, media, and business elite might have found it harder to normalize him and his neo-Confederate MAGA cohort.
The evidence of Trump’s abject bigotry has been out in the open for decades, from his determination to assign the death penalty to the exonerated Central Park 5 to his nonstop racist commentary about immigrants. His attack on DEI is rooted in this same racism, although the legacy media and timid politicians dare not call it that for fear of being labeled “woke.” Blaming the 2025 D.C. plane crash on DEI; taking down a tribute toJackie Robinson;replacing MLK, Jr.’s birthdayas a federal holiday with his own at our National Parks; trying towrite slavery outof the Smithsonian; and arresting Black journalists…are plainly efforts to demean and erase African Americans from our history.
Even before Trump took office in 2025, theACLU aptlydescribed precisely what he was doing:
This attack on DEI is part of a larger backlash against racial justice efforts ignited by the 2020 killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, and the nationwide protests — unprecedented in size and diversity — that followed.
The ACLU explained that anti-DEI ideologues frame “their attacks as a strike against ‘identity politics’ and weaponizing the term ‘DEI’ to mean any ideas and policies they disagree with — especially those that address systemic racism and sexism.” This is nothing more than a tactic in “a larger effort by right-wing foundations, think tanks, and political operatives to dismantle civil rights gains made in recent decades.”
Trump has turned the topranks of civilianandmilitary personnelinto a virtually all-white boys club. He hasrestored the namesof Southern slaveholders to military bases; while refusing to appoint a single Black woman to the federal bench in his second term. He has repeatedly hiredneo-Nazisand elevated White Nationalistsympathizers.He selectedprimarily Black and Muslim countries to enforce restrictions and provoke adverse treatment on visas.
Furthermore, his constant insults directed at women — evidenced by the E.J. Carroll sexual assault verdict, or his ongoingmistreatment of female reporters— leave no doubt about his misogynistic venom. His compulsive dehumanization of immigrants and resorting toenabling White supremacistshave been at the heart of his presidency. It is hard to conjure what more proof of deep-seated racism and misogyny would be sufficient to persuade those who feign inability to know Trump’s real motives.
It should be noted that, on Friday, in a candid and refreshing move, theNew York Timesdid report: “President Trump posted a blatantly racist video clip…then deleted it after an outcry, including from members of his own party.” The paper alsoacknowledgedthe endemic nature of Trump’s racism: “Mr. Trump has a history of making degrading remarks about people of color, women and immigrants…. Across Mr. Trump’s administration, racist images and slogans have become common on official sites.” However, theTimesand other legacy media reporters do notpersistentlygrill him on this topic. In failing to put serial examples of his racism in context, they allow Trump and MAGA politicians to skate along with formulaic denials.
Even now, the regime slides by without serious confrontation. The press should continue interrogating the White House press secretary as to why she originally stated that the Obama video clip elicited “fake outrage.” She needs to be pressed to identify the mystery aide who allegedly posted it erroneously (has that “aide” been fired?) This should be the focus when she returns to the briefing room.
Beyond this incident, corporate/legacy mediacouldconfront MAGA politicians, examine the racist views of Trump’s voters, or explain that his policies, however rationalized, are racist. The crusade to destroy the Voting Rights Actcouldbe identified as part and parcel of Trump’s aim to return America to Jim Crow politics, and his plan to make the country whiter through mass deportationcouldbe labeled as the full expression of White nationalism. Theycouldreject his excuses (e.g.,DEI is all about “merit”) and refuse to let Republicans scamper away or appear on TV without answering about the most recent racist comment.
Cowed for fear of being labeled as “woke,” elected leaders, sports champions, business leaders, and other prominent figures must stop ignoring the regime’s racist underpinnings, the MAGA party’s White nationalism, and the wholesale assault on pluralistic democracy — which the Supreme Court has aided and abetted (e.g., eviscerating the Voting Rights Act, ending affirmative action). They should followJudge Ana C. Reyes’ example: look to Trump’s own words to discern his motives. We need to stop pretending there are benign reasons for policies and personnel decisions that (wow!) just so happen to bolster white men at the expense of all those easily classified as “others.”House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffrieshad it right in demanding his enablers and sycophants aggressively denounce Trump.
Trump might be president, but the time for mincing words and normalizing his ethnic cleansing campaign (disguised as “immigration policy”) has long passed. All decent citizens should ostracize him when he prioritizes frivolous social functions at Mar-A-Lago rather than attending to the needs of the nation (see:snoozing through theMelaniapremierewhile the country grappled with Alex Pretti’s devastating, baseless murder).
Let’s say it:Trump is a racist. The Republican Party tolerates — if it does not actively endorse — his racism. Those who normalize him enable racism. His agenda is grounded in racism.
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We've always had trouble with snow falling off the roof onto the porch making it a slippery mess. And if it snows a lot overnight there gets to be such a pile that we can't open the door.
Dan found and installed this snow fence on the roof this past fall. It works great.
And for the snow that lands on the porch, for Christmas our daughter gave us a heated mat. It has a remote control inside to turn it on and off.
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