February is Over…yeehaaa!

I’ve started and almost finished this blog post 4 times now.  For some fucked up reason it keeps disappearing into cyberspace and I can’t retrieve it.  I was using my tablet for writing but now have my laptop back…and LOVING having it back!  I don’t know how to function without this laptop of mine, using the tablet is just like primative to me.

So where was I ….I am kind of not really into writing right now, but wanted to get this done today.  So I am forcing myself, in between getting up to do tasks around the house as I think of them, to sit down and just write.  It’s good therapy and I need that right now.

Oh yeah, the weather here has been spectacular.  Sunny warm days hinting at Spring. Today ends February, so it’s all downhill from here hopefully.  I expect we will get more snow but it won’t stay around long because of the warm weather and solar melting.  There is not much left on the ground now from those two nor’easters that we had in early February.  I’m just sick of snow and ready to be out there raking and doing Spring clean up around my yard.  I also need to clean out and reorganize the shed as soon as possible.  I may add a lean to roof to the rear of the shed so I can store my lawn equipment out there out of the rain and out of my way. Yeah, I have lots of Spring time projects planned!

I cooked a great dinner tonight, marinated shrimp, with my special pasta salad.  It was awesome. Now I am sitting here writing and enjoying my vape, yes , I am back to vaping to help cut back on my smoking habit. My buddy Linda came over for dinner, it’s nice to have dinner company when I decide to cook.  When I am alone I tend to survive on roast beef sandwiches and clam chowder.

I stayed up last night and worked on a slew of new paracord bracelets, I made about 20 of them and made a bunch of camo cord key fobs with compasses and dog snap attachments on them.  All good stuff for my up coming festivals.  I ‘ve got one on May 6th at the Rochester Fair Grounds, should be the first one of the season.  While I was busy making bracelets the Academy Awards was on giving out their Oscars for best actor, best picture ect.  It was a pretty good show all around, until that fated ending….they called the wrong movie for best picture.  They called La La Land, when in actuality it was discovered after a few moments of commotion on stage that Moonlight was actually the winner of the Oscar for Best Picture.  Everyone is talking about it, how could such a rookie mistake be made during the biggest TV awards show in America?  It was almost as bad as Steve Harvey calling the wrong contestant Miss Universe….too bad our election didn’t come out the same way…whoop, wrong name! hahaha

I was writing about changes earlier.  Recently I changed from primarily drinking Pepsi to drinking Coke instead, which lead me to a long rant about how we all are growing, learning and changing constantly.  You are not the same person you were 2 years ago and neither am I.  Life is a constant series of challenges and changes; adaptations to what is in front of us at the moment.  You cannot stop the changes, and if you could your life would be boring and stagnant, stuck in place.  Some of the changes in my life I have enjoyed, but some I haven’t so much.  I think we strike a balance; make a deal with ourselves to make it all good.

Trump is going to be on TV live tonight addressing the Congress and Senate.  I will be up and listening very intently I am sure.  I have noticed that someone, perhaps some of his handlers have been making him tone things down a bit.  There is so much chaos already and every time he tweets or opens his mouth unsupervised and unscripted he causes more hate and chaos.  I can’t wait to see what he has to say tonight to piss us all off again.

That’s it for me today…I just restarted some new meds and I am kinda feeling like everything I do is a complete task.  I’m moving slow and not enjoying not feeling well.  Should be back on track in a couple of days and back to myself though.  So all is good.

Peace!  ~MB

 

 

 

 

RIPPING MAD

I am so angry about Sessions first act as attorney general being to remind protections for transgender youth.  And he is well known for his outspoken anti-LGBT stance.  So, this is just one step in the many he will take to rip apart all that we have worked so hard for over the last 25 years.  

Gavin Grimm is going to the Supreme Court to fight for bathroom rights for transgender people.  He was on the show “The View” this morning.  this is the first tiem tghe Supreme Court is hearing a case on transgender rights.  This is about humanity.  This is about equality.  Gavin was composed and articulate, and he spoke so eloquently to this issue.  He has a civil right to exist in public space.  Trumps administration wants to return this power and decision to the states.  But this is a civl rights issue and needs to be dealt with on a federal level.  Laverne Cox joined the show via phone, I have so much admiration for her.  She spoke about the stigma and social bullying that goes along with this issue.  Separating these kids because they are a little different is telling the student body that they can also treat these transgender kids any way they want.  I cannot imagine going through high school and being trans, it is a real challenge I am sure.  I commend Gavin for standing up for himself and his peers.  Let’s pray that the SCOTUS will rule in favor of this issue and will tell Trump to keep his tiny hands off of our civil rights.

I think that we, as Americans, often take it for granted that we can do whatever we want to do.  We are spoiled rotten in many ways.  I admit that I have some privilege as a middle class white person living in a nice small town in Maine.  I can be lulled into complacency with how many of the world’s problems do not really affect us here in small town America.  But I believe this is dangerous. I don’t ever want to be complacent about what is happening to my fellow citizens under this fucked up administration.

This administration, under Trump and Bannon’s guidance (a term loosely used here) has so far attacked Latinos, Blacks, Muslims, Jews and now young Transgender people.  It is like they have a “list” and are checking off boxes as they go down through it.  Today is Thursday February 23, 2017 and I haven’t yet checked my feeds to see what they are up to today – probably attacking the Native Americans at Standing Rock if I venture a guess.  They also began that process yesterday, the deadline of the protesters to leave Standing Rock so that the Dakota Access Pipe Line could go through those sacared grounds and destroy their land, possibly poison ground water and who knows what other kind of havoc it will cause should it ever fail or spring a leak.  Trump thinks this is how you “create jobs” because he is not aware that green energy is the wave of the future and his oil will become outdated and primative soon.  This oil pipeline, going through our country is not even to supply oil to us.  He really is a stupid old man with archaic ideas and values.  IF he even has any values to begin with.  

The news feeds are going crazy not only about the loss of trans protections, but with the anger and outrage of citizens who are gathering by the thousands to fill town hall meetings calling for answers from representatives who are in their home states this week to field such questions from their constituants and to try to help us make sense of some of these senseless acts by Trump.  The people are seriously up in arms over all of the strange and hateful executive orders.  Trump is calling us “paid Protesters”…yeah, like we are ALL racing to the mail box to pick up those checks – NOT!  It is just another of his made up delusions.  How he deducts that people actually get paid to protest is really out there.  Trump is really a super flake.  

Some senators are avoiding attending, shownig up, or even acknowledging these town meetings.  Maine Senator Susan Collins is just one of the “missing”.  She will not hold town halls and the people here in my state are pissed about it.  I am pissed, as a citizen I have the right to access to my representatives, and by making herself unavailable she is denying me that right. She will pay for this I  the next election.  Resist.  -MB

Fake Blog Post

Ok, I’ve heard the words “fake news” so much that I am willing to bet that the term makes it into the dictionary somewhere.  So I am titling this post as my Fake Blog Post.  Although what I am writing here are my thoughts, which are real, I am not sure what exactly will be the “fake” part…guess  I will have to figure that out.  

It is beginning to feel like winter is just dragging on here, but I know that it is really only a matter of a month now until we celebrate the first day of Spring.  I am a bit tired of the winter routinespecially of hanging out inside all the time, having to start the truck to let it warm up and defrost before venturing out anywhere, and of shoveling snow.   I want to be dressing in lighter weight clothing and I want to put all of the hats, gloves and insulated boots away til next winter!  I am anxious to start planning out my flower gardens and the vegetable patch.  I plan to plant more pumpkins this year in hopes of having a good crop of them for fall, last year we managed to harvest 10 nice ones which is more than I have ever been able to grow.  So I considered that a decent number for my amateur green thumb.  I think one thing that really helped was that Charlie, my neighbor and co-farmer of the veggie patch, was a Diller entry waterer.  We had a pretty dry summer so gardens had to be watered quite frequently to keep them from dying off.  I’m not one who gets excited with hosing down the gardens, so my flowers weren’t as nice as they usually are during a normal rainfall year.   This coming year I hope to be better with keeping up with the nightly watering so that the place looks green and well cared for.

2-22-17   I have been tring hard to stay caught up on emails, and I am doing pretty good, but still find that my email box is stuffed with junk mail.  I have been busily unsubscribing from various lists in an effort to curb some of it. Junk mail sucks.  I have been corresponding with a couple of new friends though through email, which is fun and exciting.  I like meeting new people, and I don’t mind emailing when it is on a personal level. 

It is another beautiful day today (Wednesday) and I should be out doing something, but here I sit in the house, TV playing in the background, dogs milling around my chair – because I had to move from the couch spot where I was sitting as Lulu wouldn’t allow me the peace I needed to write or concentrate.  Yup, I need to finish up here and get out for a while.  The dogs need to run around outside and get some exercise too.  I cannot believe how warm and nice to has been here recently, this is too good to be true and just means that we are once again overdue for some cold or snowy weather.  This time of year is so unpredictable.

I have purposefully stayed away from Trump news this week.  I was finding that it was consuming my thoughts, and thus making me irritable as fuck.  I know that I will have to catch up, but not today!  Sometimes one just has to take a mental health break.  Hope you are all doing well.

Peace~   ~MB

Sunny Sunday

Democracy will die in darkness. Having a fully free Press and attentive reporters watching our government and the officials is vital to the dissemination of information to the people.  Fair and accurate news coverage is what the American people are looking for and what we deserve. 

Trump, our so-called president, has declared that mainstream media is biased and thus is the “enemy of the American people”.  He is just mad because he cannot control the media and what they print.  The man has some very serious control issues.  His approval rating is only like 36% and yet HE claims he is far higher in numbers than what is real.  Problem is that he will make this stuff up and his cronies will swear by him, even when he is lying.  This whole thing is going to backfire on him very soon, just watch and see.  The Russian connection is going to play a big part in his demise I am willing to bet.  There is something very funky going on with him, his people, and the Russians.  I don’t believe any of them are being honest or forth coming about his connections to Putin and the Russians. 

The whole thing here is just not ethical.  Trump is trying desperately to circumvent everything he can. He wants to micromanage each office; each secretary and create alternative processes for ruNing our government.  He claims he “inherited a mess” when he just doesn’t understand how government works, he wants it to work like one of his corporations where HE is the decider-in-chief.  He has to learn that he is a president not a dictator.  It’s really a shame that he somehow got elected by the electoral college.   Too bad there isn’t some kind of application and test to be taken before you assume the highest office in the land.  The person sitting in the Big Chair in our White House should KNOW HOW GOVERNMENT WORKS and should be a stable, sober minded individual.  But this is not what we have here right now, so how this is going to play out will be really interesting — and very scary.

I have been just with great out these latest snowstorms here in Maine and praying for Spring to hurry up and arrive.  I’m sick of shoveling snow.  I work as much as I am allowed and spend the rest of my time mostly hanging out at home with my faithful dogs.  Of course, I watch quite a bit of news and do a lot of Internet reading daily.  I’ve been meaning to write just about everyday too.  Trump’s antics give me plenty of fodder for subject matter!  Plus life has just been going along as usual around here, so following the Trump debacle has been the height of entertainment most days.  Sad.  
Today I decided to do some cleaning, and one of the things that needed attention was my yahoo account.   See, I have been being lazy and not checking emails for quite a while so my inbox was STUFFED full.  I have been weeding through the endless built up emails all morning.  Thus far I have only found like 10 that were of any real interest or were fromade people I knew and we’re not junk or spam mail.  I have deleted hundreds and tried to unsubscribe from dozens of sites in an effort to reduce the amount I get daily.  I have alternate accounts but my mainelybutch@yahoo.com is my primary and I depend on getting important emails there. Plus it is where my readers occasionally write to me too.

OK I need to do some errands around town and get the dogs out for some exercise.  You all have a great day!  Peace   -MB

Lulu’s Birthday

Today is Lulu’s 2nd birthday!  We went to McDonald’s, as is my tradition with the dogs on their birthdays.  She was so excited it was very cute.  She and Nola split a happy meal and gobbled it right down.  

Chaos and Calamity

Chaos  ( kay-os) n.  great disorder or confusion.

That is certainly the state of affairs here in America right now. Great disorder and confusion.  I would love to make this a light hearted or funny post, but there really is nothing light hearTed or funny about our current “situation”.   

Trump, his tiny hands and unfiltered mouth have gotten us into some real shit buckets in only a mere two weeks in office.  And Bannon, his chief advisor and puppet master is probably more to blame than you think.  The Nazi bastard is really the one pulling the strings.  We are not being fooled, we know that they both have equal parts in this debacle.  

I am 55 years old.  The first president that I remember with any detail in my life was Nixon.  I was too young to vote when he was running for the office, but I was in 5th grade and we did a class election type of thing.  We made our individual choices for who we wanted elected and then we made up campaigns, gave speeches and followed the election in the newspaper every day.   Newspapers were the main source of news back in the 70’so when this was going on, oh those were the days. I, in my ignorant youthfulness chose Nixon as my candidate.  I hadon’t to make up a nice binder of information on him, his stances on the issues and the major issues that would be facing him as president.  History tells us that the Vietnam War and abortion were two of those huge issues.  Of course history also tells us that he won, he pulled us out of Vietnam and Roe vs, Wade happened….then, to make a long story short, he got himself impeached.

My point in telling that little story was to basically say I have seen enough presidents, witnessed the good and the bad of quite a few – both Democrats and Republicans. But never NEVER have I witnessed someone like Trump – I suppose NO ONE HAS.  He has brought us into completely uncharted territories.  A billionaire with a horrible financial track record, a reality TV personality, and a severe narcissist.  This man is dabbling on the side of being so consumed with himself and his great need for approval and love that he is endangering the integrity of our country in every waye possible.  I do not predict a good outcome for him.  He has had to vacation every weekend since he tooknows office to his place in Florida.  Rumor has it that he’s not having very much fun being in charge, he is preoccupied by watching television news programs and complaining about all of the protests.  He’s not going to be in office for long, mark my words.  He can’t handle this kind of job, the pressure or the duties.  

Our White House has become a tomb of secrecy.  Melania, his wife – whom he has not even referred to as First Lady – won’t even live there.  She would much rather be in her golden palace in NYC or down inow their mansion in Florida.  She sees the White House as peasants quarters.  I bet you won’t hear much from her at all, ever.  For him to allow her to speak her own mind would go against his need to control her.  This guy hates women and thinks we are second class citizens. But remember this is a golden spoon fed, sheltered old white man who wants to take everything backwards to the 50s.  

The elderly Cheeto held a press conference yesterday, a first for him since he took office.  He jabbered on for 84 minutes, blathering about how great he is and how he is the best thing to EVER happen to America since the invention of the light bulb.  He got caught lying about the numbers of his electoral college win, and tried desperately to blame it on someone else.  He trash talked the media, claiming that any media outlet that isn’t singing his praises daily is “fake news”, which goes along with his idea of “alternative facts”.  The guy isn’t being represented well in media because he is secretive, doesn’t give the media access to himself or his cronies, thus they have to rely on inside sources (which Trump calls “leaks”).  The media reports on things and Trump will swear they didn’t happen – the Flynn resignation is one shining example of that.  

It has become very infuriating to watch the Cheeto talk at all.  His command of the English language is pathetic, he just can’t always put good sentences together.  And he is constantly complimenting himself; patting himself on the back and boasting about how great he is.  Problem with this is that he BELIEVES all his own rhetoric.  One day he is going to get taken down a few notches and he will crumble under the shame.  

What do people from other countries think about this “president” that we somehow elected here? I would love to hear foreign opinions.  Peace.  ~MB

Chaos and Deception

Our White House is in total disarray; utter chaos!  Trump is ranting about “leaks” of classified infromation, referring to the Flynn resignation over his secret contact and discussion with the Russian ambassador about the Obama sanctions in December 2016.  Trump has known about all of this for over 17 days, yet it was just yesterday that Flynn was asked to resign.  Then Trump defends Flynn in a news conference and in Tweets saying “he’s a good man” and that it was “fake news” and illegal leaks from intelligence agencies in his own administration who were the real culprits.  The man is fucking certifiably insane.  He is fully in bed with Russia and Putin.  He is hiding his dealings with Russia, lying for his people, and trying to fool us into thinking he is some how blameless in all of this mess.  

This is just the latest in his tirade of insanity.  Just follow the man’s Tweets and you can see how he is coming apart at the seams.  He is losing control, and he knows it.  Why the Republican party continues to stand behind this lunatic is beyond my realm of comprehension.  He’s just bat shit crazy!  Any half intelligent being can see that, why the Repubilcans won’t stand up and challenge him on all of this insane shit is just weird.  They must be petrified of the guy.  Afraid he is going to tear them apart if they speak out.  He can be very, very mean and says very mean things about people who don’t agree with him. 

We have 3 branches of government here as a form of checks and balances.  Our founding fathers wanted those checks and balances for just a situation like we are in now, where a leader, a president, is not acting right; not acting presidential or making any effort to lead as a democratic leader, but is using his power out of fear mongering, spite and hate.              

Trump has scheduled a “campaign rally” in Orlando for this Saturday.  He filed as a candidate for the presidential election of 2020 already, and he is going to be campaigning again, already. Crazy I say, he is just plain fucking crazy.                                                  

Snowbound

I have been snowbound for the last week.  We have had 5 storms, 2 major ones in the last week. The last one was a good sized Nor’easter, with winds of about 45mph and 18″ of new snow, some heavy and some the fluffy light type.  All I can say is that it has been a BITCH to handle and clean up.  I am a true Mainer and I do love it here, so I accept that we get some harsh winters, but that doesn’t mean that I like it one bit.  

I have taken photos of the snow and me and the dogs weathering it out.  But the photos are on my phone and I have been using my Samsung tablet to write my blogs lately – like right now.  I am going to try to upload some photo to this blog by editing it from my phone, but am not sure if it will work or not.  I may have to create a separate post of photos.  

I have been watching the news of our president’s lying about his and his administration’s ties and communications with Russia…it’s very troubling to think that this Trump character is in bed with Russia and Putin, and he is holding the nuclear codes to the US arsenal.  Very scary indeed.  He and his compadres are all liars.  They have been caught red handed here in these lies about their connections of Russia and Russian intelligence.  Now there is a Russian spy ship cruising around just off the east coast here, right near Delaware…and the Russians have a new nuclear missile in their pockets…very scary….it is like we are waiting for the other shoe to drop here.  What is next?  I am sure with some more investigation we will confirm that Trump has a vested interest in Russia, what else would explain his close ties to them?  Yes, we are in quite a mess here, and no one is quite sure of what to believe and how to handle these things.  Especially his own Republican party.  They are all at this point going to go down with the sinking ship of Trump, unless they wise up and start to pull away from him.  

Ok, I am off to get supplies before this next storm comes in today.  Peace.  ~MB

Saturation

I am akin to being water-logged with the saturation coverage of the debacle called Trump.  It is fucking amazing how much news coverage he commands with his antics and stunts.  The guy is so unpredictable that you just have to follow along and wonder what he is going to pull next.  

Yes, life here in America has changed in the last 3 weeks. I do not feel as safe as I did before January 20th 2017.  I do not feel that my country is as safe as it was previously.  Our “so-called President” has got the eyes of the world all pointed on us, and he is behaving badly on top of it all.  He has no idea how to act the part, how to be Presidenial or act with conscience and compassion for people.  He IS the proverbial bull in the china shop.  

here is a man, who was elected President, who has the lowes approval ratings in history. There is a very serious mobilized resistance to him and his administration here.  People are rising up and being very vocal about their opposition to Trump and his cronies.  And it’s not going away, which is what he wants.  The man hates the protesters, calls us the “opposition” – along with the media, who he has a very hateful love relationship with these days.  He wants everyone to love and adore him, including the media, which just isn’t going to happen with the climate he himself is creating here for Americans.  

I am resolved to keep resisting, to keep the pressure on my representatives, senators and hopefully some of them will come around and grow some balls to stand up to this bully in office.  But I have to say it is tiring to be so inundated with various information about all of the goings on.  Our national news feeds, CNN, NECN, etc. are filled with daily stories of all of the doings of the Trump administration.  It makes it hard to sleep sometimes.  I fear the news that we are going to war with some other nation – perhaps Korea now that they have launched a ballistic missile, or perhaps China because he keeps pissing them off, maybe Iran who has “crossed the line”….who knows who it will be, but I am sure he will get us into a squirmish somewhere in the world.  
It has been snowing here in New England for about a week now.  Today I hunkered down in my little house waiting out the latest Nor’easter we are getting.  Predicted snowfall is 18” plus/minus…way too much as far as I am concerned!  We got a little over a foot of snow just 2 days ago.  It was the light, fluffy kind of snow that was relatively easy to shovel and manage, but it is still snow.  We didn’t get any kind of snow in January, so I guess we are due for some good amounts this month.  Thankfully we are past the half way  mark, only 36 days left til the first day of Spring!  I cannot wait for the warmer days, green grass and flowers to bloom! I am looking forward to planting the vegetable garden and tending the flower gardens once again.  

I am pretty unhappy with my job lately, but have been waiting to see what happens here governmentally before I jump and change jobs.  I have been wanting to change for a while now, but also wanted to stay with the truck stop for some longevity.  I just hit the one year mark at the beginning of January.  It is just that I need a change really.  I am just bored with this job.  I would like something a bit more challenging and active.  But I also have to keep it part time, which is hard.  I will most likely get back into the flea market business come warmer weather.  I enjoy the buy and sell kind of business model.  Plus it’s very fun, and you meet alot of great new people.  

Nola and Lulu have been troopers during all this inclement weather we’ve been having.  They get a little stir crazy being inside more than normal, and Itry to get them outside a few times a day to get some fresh air, etc.  Today I tried to trim their toenails, but they really fight me on it.  I got Nola’s front feet done and one of Lulu’s.  I will have to take them to the groomer to really get them trimmed good.  It stresses me out to do it myself.  i hate making them uncomfortable.  

Well, not much else going on in my world right now. Just chilling out and hanging at home quite a bit, waiting for warmer weather and sunny days.  Iam now going to do some reading and some web surfing.  Hope you are all having a good Sunday!  Peace~  ~MB