Life Goes On…

Where do I start…? My not writing much for the past year gives me a whole shit load of stuff I could write about, but I’m not sure what’s really relevent to any audience I may have left out there for my diatribes. What’s interesting? What’s important? I can’t even tell anymore. I feel a bit fried to be honest. It’s been a LONG fucking year.

My Mom died a week ago yesterday. I have dreaded writing or speaking those words my whole fucking life. See, I was a hell-child who put my Mom through some intense episodes over the course of 61 years. Yet, she was always my most dedicated supporter. Sometimes picking me up and dusting me off, sometimes kicking me in the ass, sometimes bailing me out of jail, or showing up beside my hospital bed after I had done something bad to put myself there. Yet no matter what my Mom loved me and she never, ever gave up on me. Once she showed up at a drug house where I was at and yanked me out of there and hauled me to rehab which was 4 hours away at the time.

Yes, that woman saved my life repeatedly after initially giving me life to begin with when she was barely out of high school herself. She was incredibly strong, and while starting a large family as young as she and Dad were may not have been her “original” plan, it’s the one that she chose and dedicated her life to, doing the BEST job any mother could EVER do. She & Dad had me and four other kids before she was 28 yrs old. Dad was 30. They gave us the best experiences in childhood they could, raising all of us to be good, righteous, and honest people who would each contribute to the world in their own unique ways, and they were very successful at doing it!

I was difficult and I know it. I was also the oldest and the first to do everything – right or wrong, usually the latter for many years. I knew that I was attracted to girls/women very early in my childhood and I did everything to hide it. I was a hardcore Tomboy, which caused the first issues due to my adversity to dresses, girly clothing and long hair. I remember a couple of tantrums I had due to Easter outfits…those old 60’s traditional Easter dresses, hats and gloves…omg, I was SO uncomfortable in those and then when they wanted to braid my hair, I melted down as 5 yr olds will do. Of course, my sister who is 18 mos younger than me was the perfect frilly girly girl. This did not help me. Memories. I have sooo many GREAT ones because of my awesome parents.

Eventually it was clothing that brought about complete rebellion at age 13. My Dad was super strict, an ex-Marine, ex-cop who was determined NOT to raise any delinquents. His insistence that us girls wear dresses 4 days a week to school and we could wear “slacks” on the 5th, did NOT go over well with me. I wanted jeans and work boots. HIs view was that was the clothing that delinquents wore, so NO was his answer. Eventually, I would sneak clothes to school around the same time I started smoking too. After one particular arguement over dresses I wrote a note and ran away from home.

There’s a whole story in the 3 days I was gone that I may tell some other time. The end result is that things changed, my Dad and I had a very fraught relationship for many years, my siblings escaped clothing policing hell, and Mom came into my room after I got home. I was laying on my bed crying. She sat with me, talked to me, told me not to hate Dad and offered me a smoke. From then on she and I had a different dynamic, one that grew to be incredibly strong over the years. A few years ago she was cleaning out her old jewelry box and gave me that note I had written the day I ran away. She had kept it all those years. I still have it. I have the old jewelry box as well.

I never confessed my being gay to my parents until I was in the Army and home on leave one time. Instead I stuffed the feelings of being a failure in some ways. I always chose to run with the rough crowd and I did crazy kid things like smoke pot and race my car around town. Mom & Dad were good about it when I did come out to them, but I have to say it was the hardest thing I ever had to say outloud to my parents. And that is just not right in any circumstance.

My mother became my most staunch supporter. Our mother-child relationship grew and became very, very strong. I settled down in my late 20’s and left most of the crazy life behind me. I got into a very long term relationship and became super family oriented. My life completely changed, I changed and life was good.

Sure, I still got myself into the occasional pickle and Mom was always there. We could talk about together. I told her secrets and she told me secrets. We both loved gardening, collecting, thrifting, crafting and family gatherings. I am really going to miss doing those things with her. I will keep doing them and I will always have the memories of her in them.

I just want to pick up my phone and hear her voice on the other end of the line. I miss our daily calls. I miss her sooo much and I know it’s only been a week, and I have a lot of grieving ahead. And the funeral is Tuesday. I’m sure it will be a day with my family, remembering her and letting her soul know that we are all going to be alright, because she made us all strong and she prepared us as best she could for her departure. It hurts so much. I miss her and I always will. I love you Mom.

~MB

Whew! Mid-Terms are FINALLY Over!

It’s finally in the can, as the old movie saying goes. 2022 mid-term elections are over. O.V.E.R. Damn, it felt like forever getting to Nov. 8, 2022. But we did it, we voted and now we are counting…and counting…and counting. I’m sure there will be some deniers who will stomp and pout to make some states count yet AGAIN. Like Arizona. It’s 2:30 am Saturday morning (11/12/22) and we are still unsure WHO will be “in charge” in the house and senate. Democrats are ONE seat away from 50 in the senate and the house still has several seats for either party to gain control. I seriously hope that the Democrats can maintain the trifecta of rational governance.

Trump is taking a serious beat down over his causing many of the GOP candidates their seats. He is the only one who believed that HIS endorsement made any difference. OH, it DID make a difference – it caused them to LOSE seats. It’s been VERY QUIET on the Republican front. The only people talking about how dreadful the outcome has been for the GOP candidates are the journalists and media outlets and some of the Democrats. Most of the Republicans have remained mum.

I think that once everything is settled and we know what’s what and who is occupying what seat then they will all start to play the “blame game” with some blaming Trump, some blaming McConnell and NONE taking any responsibility for their own words, and actions that caused them to lose this badly. They have to see that people are so sick of the denialism of election results. They scream that elections are not fair YET they continue to run as candidates in elections! Tsk Tsk. If they don’t believe in the system then WHY RUN?

So, let’s all just hope that the votes come in Blue and we can rest easy for another year before the next big election cycle get’s heated up. We can laugh as we watch Trumpty Dumpty try to repair his shell cracks and make a silly 3rd run for office. He’s sooo concerned about Ron DeSantis – who could be more evil as President than Trump was because unlike Trump, DeSantis is smart and cunning. I will talk more about him in the future. But anyone in the LGBTQ world should be VERY afraid of DeS1antis because he HATES us and he WILL do all he can to make being LGBTQ a CRIME. He will end same sex marriage and make our lives hell if he’s elected.

Trump is going to be a funny train-wreck for the next few months. SNL will be having plenty of fodder for their shows! And news media pundits should have a literal ball chewing him up nightly. Enjoy!

In the meantime…everyone be safe.

~MB

Ukraine…is Russia committing genocide?

I follow the Ukraine defense quite closely, watching movement reports daily and then I access as many well done reports from people living there and on the front lines or in major cities. I follow a couple of GREAT Ukrainian people on Youtube (Links) and it’s just been a horrific and yet amazing unfolding of basically what I see as a genocidal war perpetrated by Russia and Vladimir Putin’s greed to return the Ukrainian land to “mother Russia” as it was before the fall of the Soviet Union. Can you even believe he’s still sulking about that?

When I was in the Army and stationed in West Germany in 1981-82, during the “cold war”, we had very different views of the Russian/Soviet military and their leadership. They were very well respected for their might and because they always felt one red-button moment away from starting a world catastrophe. We did all of our exercises in the field and at our remote sites where the missiles were housed in underground chutes that they rose up out of and were pre-destined, pre-programmed I guess you’d say, for specific target cities in the Soviet Union. We had them covered from Moscow to the Berring Straights. And they had us in their sites just the same.

It was a scary time. Schools were still doing nuclear drills which have been replaced today with live-shooter drills. The world was a hot box of major stand-offs around the globe. It was just 5 year post-Vietnam. No. & So. Korea was a raw wound, and I had many Army compatriots stationed in the DMZ around that same time. We didn’t have the internet or any of the electronic conveniences of today’s fast-paced media driven world. Our news came to us when we got into formation after we had done PT and had breakfast, major stuff would be announced and our status reiterated or changed. We got American newspapers about 3-4 days after publication. Nothing was instant.

Today anything you want to know is just a few keystrokes away buried in Google somewhere. Alas, be cautious of sourcing and factual content of what you intake. So we are watching a war basically live on our devices whenever we want.

I have been sort of analyzing the internet/web – maybe more of my own use than anything else. It was fun once up a time. Back in the days of AOL and “chatrooms”, it all seemed to start off innocent enough and as time has gone on and technology has advanced so rapidly that it’s become something we now depend on to live in the civilized world anyway. I enjoy some of it, but the negativity and the posts by the radicalized MAGA wingnuts is ruining it platform by platform for people who just don’t even want to see “his” face or hear the repeated, beat-to-death, scumball LIES he tells and his parrots repeat verbatim. I get all the info I need on what situation he’s in daily from Chris on Meidas Touch and Brian Tyler Cohen, they are my two go-to journalists for up-to-the-minute details explained so anyone can understand it and understand the implications of each. They keep it real, and factual and while they do offer up opinions, they use fact-based reporting and verified accounts.

I like the BBC reports that several of their journalists who are bravely reporting from inside of Ukraine do every day. I like the ones done of life inside of the country during a war, what the civilians are doing and how they are being terrorized by the Russian army. Can you imagine living inside a country that is being shelled, bombed, and invaded and its people are being massacred for no reason other than to eliminate any protest to Putin taking Ukraine for himself? Watch some of the footage, and listen to the people who are living under these conditions right now; who sleep little and when they do they don’t know if they will wake up.

BBC Report on Kherson: Why Putin wants it, great footage and interviews with citizens living under wartime conditions. (48min)

Attrocities uncovered in liberated regions of Ukraine *warning: contains depictions of death and violence

Occupied Ukraine

Russia withdraws from Kherson? 11/3/22

We must give great kudos to the Ukrainian people, Vladimir Zelenski, and the Ukrainian military. When this started immediately Ukrainian men and women joined the fight – both in uniform and as civilian defense teams. They have had a rough, rough time and they’ve been damaged badly yet they continue the good fight and they are holding their own, even inflicting great damage and loss to Putin’s ragatagity untrained ground forces and put a hurting on his air power as well.

I am very concerned that Putin will release a dirty bomb of some sort. Whether it’s biological or nuclear that he keeps threatening. This would devastate Europe. It would contaminate a great swath of the area, including some of Russia and then the plume of radioactivity, will spread.

Inside of Russia Putin hides with heavy personal protection. It’s reported he’s very paranoid of an assassination attempt and he’s becoming more volatile and pissed about getting his ass embarrassed by Ukraine. He’s so egotistical that it may not take much more to set him ablaze. What he has done to the Ukrainian people is nothing short of genocide in my opinion.

Putin is having thousands of people, men, women, children, elderly, sick, disabled – everyone they can round up – tortured, raped, and viciously murdered. The reports I’ve followed are far, far too gruesome to add in here, but you can just imagine. They murder them, often with their victim’s hands bound behind thier backsand then leave the bodies where they fell and do not allow the Ukrainians to retrieve and bury their dead. This can only happen when the Russians move from a site.

The sadness and despair almost jump off the screen when you watch videos of the Ukrainian people telling the journalists what happened, about their loved ones’ murders, what the Russians did to the children of the town, and how the Russians targeted mostly civilian facilities such as schools, libraries, hospitals, museums, and cultural sites. It’s a war unfazed by the Geneva Convention rules of war.

From my perspective as a former trained soldier, I do not understand attacking civilians who are harming no one and only wish to be left alone. I was trained on what is right and what is very wrong. Torturing or killing a civilian during your occupation of their country in wartime is not permitted in civilized armies. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen (remember Vietnam’s messes and convictions)but American soldiers are well-schooled on when to shoot and what to shoot. Wars should only be fought between similarly armed opponents, and all that can be done to avoid collateral damage and the killing of any civilians should and will be done. Civilians are never to be targeted. Infrastructure buildings and systems that civilians are relying on are not to be destroyed.

Geneva Convention: It requires humane treatment for all persons in enemy hands, without discrimination. It specifically prohibits murder, mutilation, torture, the taking of hostages, unfair trial, and cruel, humiliating, and degrading treatment. It requires that the wounded, sick, and shipwrecked be collected and cared for. (source: Wex)

Principles of the laws of war:

Military necessity, along with distinction, proportionality, humanity (sometimes called unnecessary suffering), and honor (sometimes called chivalry) are the five most commonly cited principles of international humanitarian law governing the legal use of force in an armed conflict. (source: Wex)

Here is an explanation of the Geneva Convention Laws 1949. It’s in pdf format if you’d rather printed it out, it’s 7 pages, but it’s a bit interesting to read. (source: RedCross)

I’ve thought about when I was serving quite a lot lately. I have tons of memories of my time in service, my deployment to W. Germany, working around the nukes, war prep exercises, field time, and tons of other stuff. Now I watch the clips and see all that fancy equipment and get a little jealous!

Do you know what a change having GPS had to have been??? I had to take and pass an in-depth course on map reading and navigation in order to go to the Non-commissioned officer academy in Germany. I needed the NCO certification to get promoted to Sargent E-5. That’s how it went back then, plus I had a few bad marks that needed to be countered at the time so NCO school was a must. I was a damned good soldier, I liked it. I was also a very young and wild, partying and raising hell kind of young adult back then.

“Lesbian Connection” magazine

Lesbian Connection magazine

“The Free Worldwide Forum of News & Ideas For, By and About Lesbians”

A bi-monthly publication of the Helen Diner Memorial Women’s Center/Ambitious Amazons   

Several times a year I receive a great little magazine put out by a lesbian group, Elsie Publishing, from East Lansing Michigan. For those who are a tad older you’d recognize it as looking like our older, original style of communications publishing. It’s published for, by and about Lesbian women and is free to lesbians worldwide, but a small donation of $7 per issue – less if you can’t – is greatly appreciated and needed to keep the magazine in circulation. I believe it’s an important piece of literature for our community to continue to read and support – monetarily and by writing for them as well!  The openly invite contributions of writing from anyone in the community who wishes to submit!

LC (short for Lesbian Connection) has a shiney magazine cover sweetly holding the  newsprint pages. Inside you will find a nice selection of reading. Lesbian book reviews and author interviews. Reviews generally written by readers! Every issue covers a couple of “main topics”. The last year the primary “main topic” has been “Disappearing Lesbian Bars”. Many, many people wrote in about all of the old bars that we all used to dance, drink and meet our mates in back when the bar scene was THE PLACE where we would all meet up and party our weekends away. We didn’t have cell phones, computers or dating sites. There’s a fun cartoon page, letter from the editors and news about the magazine. Also you’ll find “Bits and Pieces” of news concerning the lesbian world, letters to the editor/magazine, Dykes coming up on the scene for music, acting and writing, etc. There’s also a list of “passings” (obituaries) with euologies and photos submitted by friends or partners of those who have passed recently. Then there’s the job ads, advertisements, lesbian contacts from around the country – which are lesbians you can contact in locations you may be visiting or moving to for information or quesitons on the area. 

I discovered LC about 4 years ago and now look forward to the arrival of each issue! It’s nice to read about what others are thinking about the happenings in the Lesbian world as well as how we are each dealing with our triumphs and struggles, gains and losses and everything inbetween. 

I’m encouraging all Lesbians who read my blogs and who follow me on social media to get your subscription of Lesbian Connection started as soon as possible!  I will include the information here in this post to help you do just that.  

Check out their web presence at this link: Lesbian Connection Magazine and follow them on Facebook !

I am personally promoting this magazine out of my own passion for it. I have NO affiliation with LC or it’s lead company or any of the staff. I’m posting this because as an older Lesbian I am finding that it’s important for our stories to be told, for us to stay connected – or reconnect in some cases – and to support each other and spread the love!

Peace. ~MB

Just an Update and My Thoughts…

My fucking pain level tonight is off the charts and it’s preventing me from getting comfortable enough to sleep. This is only the 2nd night in the last month that I haven’t been able to sleep, last night was the first. I had been sleeping very soundly every night, then bam! pain sets in and I can’t sleep and nothing is helping it. Oh! I just remembered my 10’s unit, think I will try that now…there all hooked up, that feels kinda good on my lower back – which seems to be the major source of the pain running down BOTH my legs and damned near crippling me today. I fought my way through the pain fog all day, got a TON of shit done while trying to ignore the pain.

My car is finally straightened out. Got it re-registered today, inspected and serviced. I don’t want to go through the winter with anything wrong with the car. I asked the Toyota garage to go through it good today and they did, said it’s good to go for the winter. I could use two new rear tires, I just replaced the front ones 2 months ago. The rear are passable, but worn and with slippery driving on the way I think I’ll put on fresh tires next month.

So much has been going on. It’s overwhelming at times, but I’m handling it all fine. Mom finally got out of the hospital tonight. 2 full weeks she’s been there with a bacterial blood infection (probably from her port) then she got covid while IN the hospital and so did my Dad, evidently the night she went in the hospital was packed with people lining the hallways with covid waiting for rooms. They believe that’s where they contacted it. Mom got the treatment for it in the hospital. Dad had a head cold and fever for 3 days and went back to work last week. Thankful for the vaccinations. I just got my Fall booster las st Tuesday.

The new job is going good. Rebuilding stamina for being on my feet for hours at a time has been challenging, but it’s going okay. I don’t mind the job. Work with some pretty cool people – no young ones at this store thankfully! it’s doing me good to be working again, although I really miss my delivery job.

My metal detecting has been lots of fun. I managed to score a really great permission to hunt on a 38 acre farm that predates 1776. The main house on the property was built in 1776, the original barn is gone, a new barn was built in 1860, outbuildings, a second house, fields, tr ails, and the original homestead rock foundation is even still visible! I cannot wait to be able to spend more time there. The owners are awesome and we have actually become friends. We met because of politics, one is a state rep. The guy has a 4-wheeler that he’s letting me use to get around to different parts of the acreage – it’s HUGE! Plus, he’s interested in detecting with me! I did a test dig the other day when I visited to scope it all out. Got some square nails and a forged spike from the early 1800’s. I only tested a small area near where the old outhouse used to be located. I’m sure I’ll be posting about some great finds from there. I have all of the back history of the property – complete! The former owner did intensive research and put together a whole binder of photos and chronology of the property.

I’ve been doing a little in other places, mostly found musket balls, old matchbox cars, a couple of arrowheads and a stone ax/pounder and a spearhead. The native relics were surface finds, not metal detected. Quite often we find both colonial and indigenous relics on the same properties. I have permission in York Maine where there is an indigenous burial ground on the property, I’m sure I’ll find a lot of relics around there. And NO, I do NOT hunt cemeteries or burial grounds! That’s not very respectful or ethical.

4:50am Tuesday….I am up again with the 10’s unit on my back, seems to be the only thing giving me any relief. This is ridiculous.

The war in Ukraine is not going well for Russia, thankfully. Putin is losing his standing even among his own people. He’s resorted to sending unskilled, untrained, ill-equipped young men to the front lines to die. Even the trained Russian soldiers say those sent will just die. Hundreds of thousands have fled Russia so they won’t be sent to fight in this senseless war of aggression. The Ukrainians are fighting like hell and doing a great job. They’ve got good weapons and good leadership. I have confidence they will continue to retake their land and force Putin’s toy soldiers back to Russia. Putin threatens nuclear options, but I don’t think he will do it, he wants the land to use, if he nukes it the land will be useless for decades.

Of course, hope is not a method. You must plan for what could happen. So the US is preparing to respond should Putin get insane enough to actually deploy nukes or chemical weapons. The US will tactically remove all Russian outposts inside of Ukrainian territory very quickly and very violently. There is also thought that he could direct strikes to Ukrainian supply depots in Poland, a NATO country. Which would also draw the US into the war, at least tactically.

I follow a few Ukrainians who post and video daily about the war and progress on the front. These are good people who are fighting for their sovereignty and for democracy against an evil man and his henchmen. For the latest check out this Eagle Claw report: https://youtu.be/B_VnOf5p5jw

Another good reporter is Denys Davydov on Youtube. He works with maps and gives great explanations of the importance of each advance and the situation on the ground. I am impressed by the coverage of this war from a citizen’s standpoint. They have linked up so that the world KNOWS what Putin is doing and sees the atrocities. I do not understand, even though Putin is evil, how the individual Russian soldier can be so horrendous, the torture, rape and killing of even children is just against Geneva Convention rules and are crimes against humanity. As many as can be identified must be brought to justice when the time comes. In the meantime, the US and NATO must continue to support Ukraine and democracy around the world.

I am frustrated that Garland has not indicted the great orange buffoon in Florida. I do believe it’s coming and he’s being politically astute in his measured responses to Trump’s idiot moves. But Trump is NOT running in 2022, so why wait? I’ve been more focused on following the war and Ukrainian progress than on watching the Trump Clown car crash and burn. Republicans that are dedicated to him and his cause are doomed, the election in a month will show them that following the wanna-be dictator will not work in America. Watch.

Ok, off to my next thing here.

Peace. ~MB

Twenty-One Years Ago

FIRST – 21 years ago, on 9/11/2001, I stood on the open 2nd floor of the barn we were building at the farm I owned with my former partner. I had just heard about the first plane and I thought that we were entering WW3. David and I climbed down the ladders and headed inside the house where we joined Nancy and watched live TV coverage as the 2nd plane hit the other tower. Then the Pentagon. Then the field in Pennsylvania. Stunned, sick to our stomachs, and fearful we all started calling everyone in our respective families. Cell phone lines were jammed, there was trouble getting through to some people as everyone in America was doing the exact same thing in that moment. In that moment the world stood still; stock still. Every life in America changed on 9/11/2001. From those harrowing moments on we knew of “life before” and “life after” America was attacked by terrorists hell-bent on killing as many Americans as possible as quickly as possible.

Almost 5,000 people died that day. And many more became victims as illnesses from the contaminated sites where they were working so hard to find survivors; rescue the living and retrieve the dead, slowly killing them months and years later. Every living American was affected that day. Those who would be born after that fateful day would read about it, maybe someone would try to explain. But no one could ever put into words exactly what happened inside of each of us; how we felt, how we cried and what our worlds were like before that day. Many things we are now used now were not even thought about before the planes hit those towers and souls ceased to exist. Things changed.

Like everyone that day, I was confused, then super sad as I watched lives being snuffed out in real time, then angry as fuck at those who perpetrated the crimes against America that day. We stopped barn construction that day and the barn went untouched for the following couple of weeks, as my partner and I were as stunned and unsure of what was going to happen. Was our country going to war? Who did this and why? Were other places at risk? What the fuck is happening???

It’s a day I will certainly never forget. If you were conscious there’s no way you could forget. It was a pivotal moment in our country’s history, in world history and in our personal lives.

Americans pulled together over 9-11. Our country was at risk. We knew we had to show solidarity.

The next major historical moment in our history would happen 20 years later, on Jan. 6, 2020 when an insurrection against our country was spawned by an egotistical man who could not accept that he lost an election fair and square. He had been working diligently for the previous 5 years to tear us apart, to get us fighting against one another; destroying the fabric of American pride piece by piece. It’s a well-used tactic that Hitler and Mousellini both used when they decided to rip their own countries apart out of greed and power hunger. Trump studied it well. And here we are…our democracy is now at risk. It’s time for us ALL to come back together as American people and fight to save our country from the evil within this time.

There’s a lot more to say, but I need a break.

Pay attention, shit is about to get very real across this country. It’s no longer just one man, he’s built a fascist army of red hats, his MAGA Red Army, who are working at his will to help him become King. We are all just considered to be collateral damage at this point – unless we pull together and do whatever each of us can do to fight back against them. Speak up. Vote. Do not stay silent, that just gives them your permission to continue their behavior in your presence. WE do not have to accept this. WE out number them and love is always greater than hate. Good will prevail.

~MB

Thoughts…

The weather broke from the high humidity and heat to a BEAUTIFUL 70 deg. no humidity, nice breezy day! I got up and decided to mow my lawn – hasn’t had to be mowed due to grass not growing for lack of water and high heat, but with recent rain showers it had gotten long. I had a kid who would mow it, but last time he did it he did a shit job, so I didn’t call him today. Started doing it myself. After about half hour I had to take a break! I didn’t realize how stagnant I have been and how much it’s taken a toll on my stamina and strength. I got it done though, just had to watch my heart rate and take breaks as needed. Place now looks good! I’m done, showered and off to do an errand for my new job. I hope to start at the beginning of the week. I’m definitely doing more to return to my normal activity level so I don’t feel like this when I go to do something strenuous.

So I finished everything to start my new job. It’s a stupid convenience store job, but WTF I need to work doing SOMETHING right now to keep me sharp, and the pay is pretty good, compatible to my last job. I am still looking for another delivery job because that’s what I really want to do. I should hear from the manager about possibly working this weekend.

I did some metal detecting today too. Got out for about an hour and a half, didn’t hit anything worth a crap, but just being out exploring is what it’s all about for me anyways. Spent nice time in the forest among the pines, refreshing. I got a new permission in NH to detect on an old 40 acre farm that’s been a farm since the early 1700’s. Also there’s a metal detector event in NH in October that I am registering to attend. Detecting and digging 2 days on a 120 acre farm with a bunch of other diggers. I am excited about that as it will help me meet more people who also enjoy this hobby. I absolutely LOVE it! I have no idea why I never thought to do this before now! I love history so metal detecting for historical relics is right up my alley!

Watched Biden’s speech last night and I have thoughts, but not going into that right now. It’s another gorgeous day (it’s Friday!) and i am off to do errands and have some ME time!

Peace!

MB

Thirteen Investigations…?

We used to live in a world that had rules, norms and specific methods of doing things. In walks Donald Trump and ALL of that is out the window. This guy does everything possible to bring attention – mostly NEGATIVE attention – to himself, he encourages the hate against himself with his whiney rhetoric and insane claims that he is some sort of “untouchable” God-like figure that is beyond laws, rules, and regulations. He pays NO price for anything wrong that he does, nothing. And he is good at nothing except making people madder and madder. He does illegal things and throws his hands up saying “I am exempt” using his being the FORMER President as his “get out of trouble free” card.

This guy is the #1 WORST thing to happen to America in the last 200 years. He’s a total bafoon. He’s uneducated, arrogant and ill-mannered. He knows nothing about American laws, history or culture. His presidency was a diabolical disaster being four years of doing absolutely nothing. He treated foreign dignitaries like shit – unless they were communists, then he loved them to pieces! He abused his own people putting many in very precarious legal quagmires.

He’s already under investigation for the coup he instigated on Jan 6, 2021 and facing possible criminal indictment for his role.

Now we have this FBI search of Mar a Lago, his beachside golf slum. After repeatedly asking for 15 months for records he took to the slum to be returned to NARA they finally had to get a search warrant to retrieve the records. Prior to this he had returned 15 boxes containing 184 classified and top secret documents back in January, but NARA knew more were still missing and in his procession. In executing the search warrant the FBI confiscated another 26 or so boxes – how many classified documents are in those we do not yet know, nor do we know WHAT kind of security risk those documents represent or who has had access to them, who may have copied them and where any copies would have ended up. This is a SERIOUS security risk to America, our troops, our agents worldwide and our law enforcement here at home. AND the investigation into Trump, for espionage and obstruction of justice, is in progress. This search and seizure was just the beginning. We’ll see what comes out at his trial once he is indicted for his crimes – those committed as President and those he has now committed post-presidency as a civilian.

Trump now has 13 open investigations on various things he has allegedly done in both civilian and government life. THIRTEEN! Who has that many serious investigations all at once? And the guy can’t even gat a decent lawyer because lawyers want one of two things – a good case and to be paid for their work, both absent with representing Donald Trump in any one of his 13 current investigations. The boneheads who are representing him now waited over 2 weeks to file for a Special Master to sort thru the documents taken from Mar a Lago. By that time they had all already been gone through by copious teams who do that exact work. A useless, late, bullshit filing by weak representation.

One day in the future Trump and his axis of Maga Red Evil will be just memories. He’ll be pushing up daisies probably from some golf course who knows where. Hopefully democracy will have survived him and his recruits and their little red hats. In the meantime we are living in VERY historical times…this probably won’t even be believed in the future, it’s so unbelievable now!

Peace.

MB

Don’t Fall in Love

(I didn’t write this, it’s something that’s posted around the B-f community on FB that I wanted to share)

Don’t fall in love with a woman who reads, a woman who feels too much, a woman who writes…

Don’t fall in love with an educated, magical, delusional, crazy woman.

Don’t fall in love with a woman who thinks, who knows what she knows and also knows how to fly; a woman sure of herself.

Don’t fall in love with a woman who laughs or cries making love, knows how to turn her spirit into flesh; let alone one that loves poetry (these are the most dangerous), or spends half an hour contemplating a painting and isn’t able to live without music.

Don’t fall in love with a woman who is interested in politics and is rebellious and feels a huge horror from injustice. One who does not like to watch television at all. Or a woman who is beautiful no matter the features of her face or her body.

Don’t fall in love with a woman who is intense, entertaining, lucid and irreverent.

Don’t wish to fall in love with a woman like that. Because when you fall in love with a woman like that, whether she stays with you or not, whether she loves you or not, from a woman like that, you never come back.

Written by–Martha Rivera-Garrido

Slow-motion Destruction of Life as we Knew It

White identity politics inside of the completely untethered Republican party – that is blatantly anti-democracy and bordering on being rebranded as a domestic terrorist organization is NOT a good thing for ANY PART of America and should NOT be allowed to continue it’s measured, a slow-motion coup on American government.

If you think it ended on Jan. 6 2021 you are sorely mistaken. Jan. 6, 2021, was the virtual BIRTH of this very active continuing assault on the American government, culture, lifestyle, and every citizen’s expectation of FREEDOM and Constitutional protections. Jan 6th was the conclusion of a “trial run”, the last episode in the Trump Terrorizes America series – soon to be followed by the new mini-docu series titled Insurrection leads to civil war.

I am just an ordinary American citizen. I am part of the LGBT community. I am female. Those last two things make me a second-class citizen in this country. I am also a Veteran who served proudly and believed once upon a time that America was a proud, thriving place of Freedoms that were unlike any others in the world. I served proudly thinking that I was part of protecting the constitution and freedom in America, all the while unknowing that many of these freedoms have been under strenuous attack for decades.

Now I am witnessing the success of these well-organized, often funded by questionable means such as foreign actors in the form of countries or foreign leaders. This whole tearing apart of America from the inside by a minority party with unlimited resources has been in the works for decades and we are now feeling the “success” of their plans to end democracy in America and install an egalitarian government.

I’ve heard “nooo, they’ll never get away with doing this, or that…” only to then watch as they CONTINUOUSLY get away with everything questionable and break all the rules, violate laws and do unimaginable illegal damage to our government entities – and are NOT prosecuted or even reprimanded! They’ve packed the courts with judges who are part of their unspoken “organization” so they are never held legally responsible and they can just keep on tearing down our country piece by piece. They have installed the most extreme right wing conspiracy theorists into many positions of power across the nation – one by one.

Their ultimate goal seems to be contiguous uninterrupted control of the country by a conglomeration of right-wingnuts of the white power party, the domestic terrorist organization formerly known as the GOP.. An org that is wanting to control women from top to bottom, forcing pregnancy. They are “against” the abortion of a glob of cells but could care less about the killing of children in classrooms via blowing their brains out with AR15s. They view women as second-class citizens with no bodily autonomy or privacy rights, to be controlled and basically owned by men. Almost daily they are stripping us of our rights quietly behind the robes of a hand-picked (by Federalists) SCOTUS with pre-determined outcomes dictated by the Federalists. They were very very copious in putting this plan together, methodically over time, having patience until we got to where we are right NOW. They have a “new” America in mind and it’s not one of the Constitutional rights or freedom. There is more to come, just watch.

In my 60 years walking this planet the happenings of the last 5-6 years have been astoundingly the worst I could ever imagine and I fear for myself and millions of others who will be targetted in this evolving scheme of the GOP.