Trump Was Right

CNN reporters Jake Tapper and Dana Bash

Oh dear -- the level of misinformation, disinformation and just plain idiocy that is the very basis of the Democratic Party is almost as scary as the thought of another term of President Biden gradually morphing into President Kamala Harris.

This morning I received the following comment in response to my "liking" another person's comment online: "obviously you have drunken the bleach like president trump told you too."

Besides her pathetic grammatical errors, the woman was dead wrong. Like many of her kind, sheeplike followers of CNN, she stupidly believed that President Trump once told people to drink bleach to treat Covid. 

He never said anything of the kind, but that didn't prevent so-called reporters Anderson Cooper, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash from saying he did. The following clarification is from Newsweek fact-checkers:

 "Trump did speculatively raise the question of medical experts researching disinfectants as a possible COVID treatment. And though he initially touted an 'injection inside or a cleaning,' he clarified in the same press conference that any treatment he was speculating on would not be through injections. Despite Trump's dubious, conjectural and inarticulate comments, he did not directly suggest that people inject themselves with disinfectant."

The worst part of the first Trump administration was the lies spread about him by the liberal press, causing him to call them "the enemy of the people." Let's hope they do better in his next term.

Taking Care of Mom and Dad, Palestinian-Style

Every cloud has a silver lining in Gaza. 

As our parents age, naturally we worry about how to care for them should they become infirm or unable to generate an income. Just yesterday my own son voiced shock and concern after learning that a month in an assisted-living facility runs to about $20,000. "Who can afford that," he asked. (I assured him I would sooner walk into the ocean like Norman Maine in the original A Star Is Born than waste his inheritance.)

Dealing with aging parents may be tough here in America, but for enterprising Palestinians it's no big deal. All a healthy young man has to do is die while engaged in killing an Israeli, or die trying, and Mom and Dad are set for life. According to a piece in today's Wall Street Journal, the Palestinian Authority "pays a one-time lump sum plus a monthly stipend for life to the families of any 'martyr' killed attacking Israel or in a confrontation with Israel." 

So for a Palestinian parent, the death of a child is much less traumatizing than it is in the U.S. In fact, it's a good thing! Not only will the dead offspring be rewarded with 72 virgins in Heaven, but Mom and Dad can stop worrying about paying the rent and enjoy their golden years. 

A Day to Celebrate Jews in America!

Today most working Americans will have the day off in order to celebrate a very important holiday that gets right to the heart of our national desire for diversity, equity and inclusion: It's National Bagel Day! (So far no word on whether Dr. Martin Luther King liked bagels.)

The great thing about bagels is that you can eat them regardless of your religion and skin color, even though they are clearly a food that originated in the Jewish communities of Poland. 

So before you grab your hastily-scrawled sign saying "Jews should all die" and dash off to the nearest anti-Israeli protest, consider your morning bagel, so yummy be it plain, sesame, poppy seed, the popular "everything," or one of those goyishe blueberry, raisin or cranberry concoctions (which are a shonda if you ask me), and thank the first Jew you meet. 

Anyway, Happy Bagel Day to all! 

Film Review: THE HOLDOVERS

Dominic Tessa as Angus, being miserable.

One of those sappy-but-instructive tales about how the connection between two lost souls can improve both lives, director Alex Payne's The Holdovers has one major thing going for it: A brand new star in the Hollywood sky is unveiled. Dominic Tessa, 21 years old, steals every scene, even from Paul Giamatti, a seasoned pro whose performance is at the top of his impressive game here. I was reminded of the world's reaction to then-unknown Dustin Hoffman's debut in The Graduate, after which he was everywhere all at once. This kid is that good, exposing an emotional depth far beyond his years.

The film's title refers to students with nowhere else to go who are stuck at a New England prep school over the two-week Christmas break. It's 1971, with the music, hairstyles, cars and technology of the era adding to the fun. Set in winter, there are lots of pretty snow scenes of the campus and the surrounding areas. With everyone else gone a chaperone is needed, and history professor Paul Dunham  (Giamatti) draws the short straw. He's a bitter, lonely and crotchety man straight out of a Dickens novel who has no time for niceties with his miserable charges. One of them is Angus Tully (Cessna), whose heartless mother has dumped him from a planned trip to St. Kitt's to instead go alone with her new husband. 

Angus is distraught, depressed and near-suicidal over the fact that he's locked in with this sorry group of losers, especially since he despises Professor Dunham. Ultimately their relationship is the crux of the film, and as expected they end up all warm and fuzzy with one another, although it's a long and bumpy road getting there. Along the way they are propped up, cajoled and counseled by the school's resident cook (Da'Vine Joy Randolph), a loving and wise woman who is mourning the loss of her only son recently killed in Vietnam. The fact that she is black and hugely obese will delight fans of diversity, equity and inclusion, although honestly I found her size distracting.

Still showing in theaters, The Holdovers is currently rentable on Peacock only, but you can pay $20 to see it on other streaming services until January 26 when it will be rentable for $3.99. If you're looking for a pleasant way to pass some time right now, it's definitely worth the 20 bucks.

I Identify as Outta Here

It's official: I no longer relate to the world. I have never heard a Taylor Swift song. I don't like football so have no idea who her boyfriend is, although I know his last name is Kelce. Yesterday I read in the news that their relationship is "all anyone can talk about." Except for me, I guess, although that was not mentioned in the article.

I regard politics as a pathetic circus that attracts and employs losers, egomaniacs, narcissists, liars, sex fiends and fools who are interested only in their own self-advancement, self-aggrandizement and enrichment gained from speeches and books written for them by other people nobody ever heard of.

Additionally, petty criminals, especially those who are not white, can easily steal up to $950 worth of merchandise in broad daylight and in front of witnesses and not be punished. At the same time, illegal immigrants, many of whom are miscreants in their native land, are given free food, free health care and free housing by the above-mentioned politicians while poor Americans who were born and raised here go without.

The most obvious evidence of mental illness in our species is war. People disagree about how to live or if there is a God or what God looks like or who owns a particular piece of land, and instead of discussing their differences they pick up weapons and hurl them, shoot them or drop them on the people with whom they disagree. Then when they get hurt themselves they return home crying and say look I have no legs anymore, I have no arms anymore, I can't work, won't you pay off my mortgage? Not I, since they went willingly, ready to kill complete strangers wearing a different uniform. What did they think -- that they would return unscathed? So now every paraplegic, quadriplegic or burned-off-face-person wants a handout, and in return for supporting their sickening behavior we'll get a free blanket imprinted with a picture of a guy in a wheelchair.

Outside of our species, the natural world is full of beauty, with birds and flowers and waterfalls and kittens and puppies and chipmunks and flamingos and peacocks and palm trees and little tiny frogs no bigger than your thumbnail. That's what I relate to. In fact, my new pronouns are chirp, ribbit and meow. Please don't bother me, I'm napping. (Unless you have some treats. )

Reality Sucks

Some days it's hard to keep going. Those are days when the wall I have built between my brain and reality thins out or even retracts completely, allowing the awful truth of the world to seep inside. Today is one of those days. 

For some reason I opted to read The Times of Israel website. Big mistake. There's a long story called "Those We Have Lost." That headline should have tipped me off and sent me scurrying back to the inanity of who wore what to the Golden Globes awards last night, but instead I soldiered on and read details about some of the people killed by Hamas last October 7, just because of their religion, or ethnicity, or whatever the heck being a Jew is. Mostly young people on the cusp of adulthood (see photo) who had gone to a music festival to have a good time, each one left behind a family to tell the world who they had been. 

My resulting feelings of grief and loss sitting in my kitchen in Maine, powerless to do anything about the situation, are pointless. My husband's advice is "don't read that stuff." As is often the case, he's right. Horrors taking place many thousands of miles from me that are far out of my control help me understand why so many people are into trivia about Taylor Swift and her football boyfriend. 

There's no punchline.

Subtle Signs of White Supremacy

You don't have to walk around carrying a torch or wearing a white sheet or waving a Confederate flag to be a white supremacist. There are so many subtle ways this dreadful condition takes hold, almost unbeknownst to the guilty party. For instance, I just heard today that punctuality is a concept of white supremacy. If so then I am guilty as hell since I can't be late even if I try. (I now also understand the whole C.P.T. thing.)

But now I'm wondering that if a simple thing like punctuality indicates white supremacy, what other things do that I don't know. How about neatness? Guilty. Showering daily? Guilty. I already heard that math is racist and luckily I'm off the hook there, although I can add, subtract and multiply. And perfectionism is apparently a very big indicator, but I don't suffer from that so maybe I'm not all white.

Who knows what's next? To be safe, if you're a white person just keep your head down and try not to articulate too much if you know what's good for you. Oh yeah, and stop knowing what's good for you.

Claudine Gay Was Targeted

Claudine Gay, the black Harvard University president who ultimately resigned after much unpleasantness is now claiming that she was targeted, never mind the Jews, because of her race. Of course she is 100% correct, that's how she got her job! Just like how Kamala Harris and other underqualified people of color obtain high-level positions.

Targeting people for their skin color is very popular these days. Maybe if I have my skin darkened I can finally get hired at LLBean.

Staying Sane in a Crazy World

Here's one approach to living: Build your house underground and stay there.

There's only one way to keep from sliding into a pit of despair and staying there forever: Wear blinders. 

Not literally, of course, like a horse training on a track, but figuratively, like an average citizen who doesn't want to know about the latest school shooting, the folly of politics, the death toll of the current wars, the coming environmental collapse, the loss of human lives from natural disasters, and the number of homeless swarming into the country and competing for sidewalk space with drug addicts, mostly because they can't do anything about it. 

My New Year's resolutions are twofold and attainable: Avoid all news and stay off the Internet. I can't wait to start feeling better!

At Least I'm Not Lisa Rinna

Lisa and her Lips

Lisa Rinna, an actress of little talent whose claim to fame, besides being married to Harry Hamlin, an actor of some talent, is her outlandishly large cartoony lips she had created with the help of a plastic surgeon or two, has, at the age of 60, decided to start the new year off with a bang by posting a full-frontal nude photo (top to bottom) of her anorexic body adorned only with sparklers over her nipples. Hoping to "start the year off fresh," she apparently thought the image would go viral and get her back in a game she was never really in. 

The poor woman. Below are a few more photos of Lisa and her lips yearning for stardom over the years. From now on when I'm feeling down I can say to myself at least I'm not Lisa Rinna. (Although I wouldn't turn down dinner alone with Harry.)

Does Mars Have Two Sexes, Like We Do?

Earlier today I came across a person whose gender was completely indeterminable. First I thought it was a woman, but soon enough I became convinced it was male. This went on for some time, until finally I was mystified enough to ask a friend who was with me and who knew the answer. Turns out it was a female, not a transgender although a lesbian. 

I give up. I am old enough to remember the good old days, when men and women flirted and tried to look attractive and, dare I say it, sexy to one another. If a man called you pretty, that definitely was a good thing. Unlike in today's twisted woke culture, where up is down and down is up and where I read the following in the "Letters" column of the Wall Street Journal: