Tonight’s post is short … I have a single rant and a poem, and then I am going to bed, for I am tired, angry, sad, and my left eye is swollen shut (no, I didn’t get punched — I petted the cat, then rubbed my eye).  I’ll be back later with renewed energy (I hope).

Gross misuse of OUR MONEY!!!

In the United States today, we have a rising national debt that is currently at $24.95 trillion.  We have a raging pandemic taking a thousand lives a day.  We have high levels of unemployment unequaled since WWII.  We have people being evicted from their homes.  We have people who cannot afford to buy food to feed their families.  We have so many needs in this nation right this very minute.  Meanwhile, Melania Trump is planning to spend OUR money to … wait for it … remodel the f**king Rose Garden!  With only 100 days left until the election, odds are she won’t be there to ‘enjoy’ it for long, and what is this going to cost us?

According to the New York Times …

The project, which includes electrical upgrades for television appearances, a new walkway and new flowers and shrubs, is meant to be an “act of expressing hope and optimism for the future,” according to a set of prepared remarks Mrs. Trump will deliver to the Committee for the Preservation of the White House later Monday morning.

“Our country has seen difficult times before, but the White House and the Rose Garden have always stood as a symbol of our strength, resilience and continuity.”

Bullshit!  ‘Hope and optimism for the future’???  If Trump gets re-elected, there will be NO hope and NO optimism and NO future for this nation!

If Trump wants the Rose Garden renovated for the purpose of enhancing his campaign for re-election, let him pay for it!  The people of this nation cannot eat the flowers and new electrical system in the Rose Garden!!!  It will not provide much-needed equipment to hospitals to help with the overflow caused by the coronavirus!!!  It will not pay the rent, so a family won’t be thrown out on the streets!!!  Get your priorities straight, Donald and Melania, else get the hell out of the White House altogether!  Go back to Mar-a-Lago and redecorate as much as you like on your own dime and your own time!

First Trump Came …

You’ve all heard the famous Martin Niemöller poem, “First They Came …” many, many times, right?  The following poem is a modern version of that, written by Gideon Lichfield, MIT Technology Review’s editor in chief.  This is Niemöller’s poem rewritten for Donald Trump’s America, and published in Quartz in June 2016, even before the election that ushered Mr. Trump into the White House.  I think it speaks volumes today, more than four years later.

First Trump came for the women
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a woman.

Then Trump came for the people with disabilities
And I did not speak out
Because I did not have a disability.

Then Trump came for the African Americans
And I did not speak out
Because I was not African American.

Then Trump came for the Mexicans
And I did not speak out
Because I was not Mexican.

Then Trump came for the Muslims
And I did not speak out
Because I was not Muslim.

Then Trump came for the gay, bi, and trans people
And I did not speak out
Because I was not gay, bi or trans.*

Then Trump came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew.**

Then Trump came for the journalists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a journalist.***

Then Trump came for the judges
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a judge.

And now Trump is coming for the Constitution of the United States
And if I do not speak out, what am I?

* Actually I am one of those, and I didn’t speak out about that.
** And one of those, and didn’t speak out about that either.
*** Ditto.

I think he summed it up fairly well, don’t you?  Think about it.