Follow The Logic

Trump announced today that, I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected. 

The best part of that tweet is that he admits that Russia did boost his election, but the second best part is that he is too stupid to realize what he has tweeted. 

Under ordinary circumstances a candidate wouldn't want to come anywhere near a conclusion that the election was impacted by agents and people outside of the candidate's orbit. Trump is so stupid that he doesn't understand that the biggest reason Russia worked FOR his election is that he is so stupid. Of course Trump being Trump, he took back his tweet within minutes because someone smarter than he pointed out that he admitted that Russia helped him, which only shows that Russia is definitely on the right track by supporting Trump who is dumber than a bag of rocks.

You just can't make this stuff up. If I wrote a book about the times I live in and included all of the nonsense, it would be sold as a fantasy or a dystopian fantasy.

The US Weather Service announced today that the last 12 months are the wettest on record in the US. Where I live that is an obvious conclusion. Even where I used to live, my sons snowboarded last weekend because there was good snow, a base of more than 700 inches. In history when this kind of weather sort of happened (keep in mind that right now is unprecedented), there were massive famines even in countries that were good providers of goods. So right now we have the "perfect" storm of Trump's tariffs harming farming communities and adverse conditions preventing those same farmers from planting. The $16 billion dollar farmer welfare deal that Trump is proposing won't make a hill of beans of difference if the fields are too wet to plow. But the $16B will still go out because Trump wants the votes. Your tax dollars at work even though Trump keeps trying to convince folks that the Chinese are paying those dollars. You can't get dumber than that, unless you are a Trump voter.

I have written this before but it bears repeating--hang on to your hats, we are heading for a wild ride.   

Pause to Reflect

My father's grave is in San Antonio at Ft. Sam Houston where he was interred with full military honors. My brother in law's grave is in Massachusetts in a RC cemetery but his name is on the Viet Nam memorial wall in DC. On this Memorial Day we pause and reflect on the service of those who sacrificed their lives for the country. My father did not die during war as my brother in law did, but he did give most of his life in service to the country, including his dream of being a professor that was cut short by being called back to the Army by the Korean War. 

The Associated Press reports:
"Boastful on the occasion of Memorial Day, President Donald Trump and his Veterans Affairs secretary are claiming full credit for health care improvements that were underway before they took office."

Honor the service of those who honor the country.

So Much Fun

With all the nonsense coming out of Washington, DC, it's important to keep a level head and a smile on your face. One way to do that is to make pasta. Now I have been making home made pasta for pretty much 50 years now, but last weekend my husband and I took a pasta class from one of the local Italian restaurants. This was so much fun it's hard to describe. There were four couples who had signed up and it was real hands on fun. The only thing we weren't allowed to do was roll out the dough using the restaurant machine and that was because it was a liability issue. But we did everything else and at the end we had four courses of pasta with different sauces and tiramisu for dessert.

We learned how to make cavatelli, garganelli, ravioli, mezzaluna, and chitarra pasta along with other shapes that I can't remember the names of. The cavatelli was the easiest as it only involved making the dough, rolling it into a long snake, cutting the snake into inch-long pieces, and then using your thumb to roll them over into a sort of cowrie shell shape. The chef explained that you could just do that on the counter with no other equipment or you could roll the dough down a gnocchi board to make the shapes grooved. Naturally I went right home and ordered a gnocchi board. Actually I ordered three and sent two to my sons in Utah for them to use. And today my hubby and I made some for home consumption. There are all sorts of videos online about how to do this so you don't need me to show you but look it up and have some fun.

And anyone who doesn't think Trump stage managed the whole snit about not working with the Democrats is simply not paying attention. Even before he entered the room he had the television cameras in the Rose Garden with special signs and all of his loyal aides. He had the staff close the curtains in the Oval Office so anyone in there couldn't see the circus and then he did his usual petulant two year old act. Howard Stern says he has a recording with Trump saying he didn't want to be president, he just wanted NBC to renew his contract at a higher salary. Trumpettes wake up!

Reasons For Recusal

There are so many cases stacking up for folks who work in Trump's excuse for an administration that being a shyster lawyer is probably paying pretty well these days. Rudy Giuliani did get embarrassed and cancelled his trip to Ukraine. His intentions were so egregious  that any rational person would hope that was the last heard from Rudy.

But there are other factors in all these contempt charges that are destined for a swift track to the Supreme Court that I am curious about. Neil Gorsuch, not the newest Supreme Court justice but chosen by Trump and his Federalist Society advisers, is the son of Anne Gorsuch. If you are a person of my advanced age, you might remember Anne Gorsuch, whom Reagan named as his EPA secretary. She was one of the first cabinet secretaries and definitely the first woman cabinet secretary to be held in contempt of Congress for failing to release documents requested. That didn't end well for her or for the Reagan administration since the documents were ultimately ordered released by judicial fiat.

So will Gorsuch recuse himself from review of contempt of Congress charges? It seems to me that he has an automatic bias that should demand his recusal but I don't expect him to have the ethics to do so. Will anyone other than I even raise the question?

And, if you have any money in the stock market, my advice is to move it in to either cash or bonds. We are headed for at least a recession and probably a major depression. It isn't simply because of Trump, but he is the exigent factor. He never could manage money and it was always someone else's money that ended up being blown. This time it's American farmers and small business owners but I guarantee that Trump does not care.  No matter what he says, it's always Trump first not America first.

Pasta e Fagioli

Pasta e fagioli is a well-known Italian dish, sort of soup, sort of pasta. There are probably as many recipes for the dish as there are for bouillabaisse in France; some are good some are not as good. The one I use isn't really from Italy since it is from a Napa valley dried bean company named Rancho Gordo, but I think it is especially delicious with the rosemary. I made pasta e fagioli today because the weather has cooled down again and it is drizzly and gray outside. While I stick pretty close to the recipe (available online under Rancho Gordo Pasta e Fagioli Recipe), sometimes I add some prosciutto strips in addition to the pancetta and I usually add a little more garlic than the one clove called for. Today I am going to add some fresh spinach right at the end to give it some color and vitamins and minerals and you could add escarole, kale, Swiss chard too.

Making the soup reminded me of my oldest son who was always trouble.When the rest of the family moved to Utah, he announced that he didn't want to go. Since he was already 19 and had barely made it out of high school, he didn't really have any other firm plans. His father told him that he had not been invited to Utah but that he had arranged an opportunity for a job in NYC through his brother who was at the time working for Sony.  So off he went to the Big Apple sure that he was going to make his mark since he clearly knew more than the rest of the entire world. I had been making an entirely different dish in the summertime when we had a bumper crop of tomatoes that we jokingly called Pasta Fazooli like the song in Disney's Cinderella movie. We would even sing the song as we served it. It was somewhere between a pasta salad and a pasta course as the sauce ingredients were either uncooked or cooked and cooled and then marinated in olive oil, garlic, and red wine before being stirred into the rinsed pasta. During my son's first month in NYC he ate out at an Italian restaurant that listed pasta fazool as a first course. Imagine his surprise when the pasta and bean dish showed up. Did he take this in stride? Oh hell no! He called me very angry and indignant that I had been misleading him all these years and was obviously the source of his embarrassment.

Anyway, look up the recipe. It is very good, relatively easy, and if you want the Bibbity Boppity Boo recipe let me know and I will write that up in a post.

Wheel of Fortune

I did finish the Wheel of Fortune quilt on the weekend. We have been running around doing stuff related to the new house such as picking out cabinets and counters and appliances which meant a lot of time in the car and not so much time at home. Today was the first opportunity to take pictures since when we were home it was mostly rainy.

Our current house doesn't have the landscaped yard of the new one but there are still spring flowers. The daffodils have come and gone but the bearded iris and rhododendrons and azaleas are blooming and some show in the pictures.

 This is the "front" of our house with the aforementioned flowers. I planted those iris because the ones that were here were just pale purple, not very interesting.

 

This photo shows the quilting from the back to give an idea of what I put in all the junctures. There are whole joins and half joins and quarter joins and the same sort of feathered heart design fits nicely on each. While I made this quilt because I was so attracted to the bold, strong design, my husband just fell in love with it because he says it is so happy. Since he has to sleep in a different room right now because of all his hot flashes he has put it on that bed. I used a wool batt I had not used before and was afraid to wash it because it was much fluffier than the usual one I buy. It shed so much while I was working on it that the whole room I sat in filled up daily with what we used to call "sluts' wool" although this was real wool including part merino fiber. I think I will return to my normal wool batting and silk batting now, maybe even return to cotton.

On a different note I have been fascinated by the healing process from my Mohs surgery. It's been more than six months now and the visible marks are few, just a little redness. What is strange, though, is the stitches that were supposed to dissolve don't seem to be doing that. Initially there was some numbness and a substantial ridge. The surgeon said to massage it every day at least two or three times and as I did that the ridge went down to nothing though the numbness and some pain persisted. Then I started getting these very weird sort of pimples right under my nostril where the incision started. They were very painful and if I picked at the pimples to get rid of the pus a suture would pop through the skin. That went on for a couple of months with at least one pimple a day and the numbness began to recede. Then that process slowed down to the point where now if my lip begins to hurt and feel numb at all, I know that another suture is working its way up to the same point under my nostril. I have had many surgeries but never an experience like this. 

Unequal Treatment

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is supposed to be given to "...an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors." Yesterday Trump gave golfer Tiger Woods the medal, supposedly because he won the Masters golf tournament. Seems like an odd choice but it's even odder in my mind because I don't think Trump even knows who Katie Bouman, PhD. is. I don't dislike Tiger Woods although I don't think he makes for much of a role model for anyone. But Katie Bouman did something truly significant by orchestrating through her work and algorithms the first ever photo of a black hole. Where is her Medal of Freedom?

Your Tax Dollars At Work

I have held back on making critical statements about Trump for a while now, primarily because there are so many occasions when the initial impulse is to proclaim how moronic Trump is. But today Trump tweeted that he wanted a waiver to be granted to people at the service academies (West Point, Annapolis, etc.) if they excelled in sports and could become professionals at their sports. His conclusion was that those people could always serve after they finished their professional careers.

Okay, there have already been several instances of athletes who either skipped their military requirements because of their gifts in a single sport or who went in to the military but performed their required service as more or less good will ambassadors, making public appearances.

But Trump's idea is reprehensible on multiple levels. The service academies are not supposed to be athletic academies as so many other schools have become. Tax dollars go to provide those young men and women with the most modern education possible but an education focused on national defense. That is the primary reason the academies are far more expensive than state colleges or even private colleges. Expenses are covered for the students because they are expected not only to serve in the military for their obligated time but it is hoped that they will stay in the service to become the leaders of the various branches.

Where playing baseball (Trump's sport) or football falls in national defense I don't know. How women who are good athletes fall into Trump's scheme eludes me as well. And keep in mind that Trump is not a fan of the new NFL rules that are supposed to mitigate concussion events.

I am delighted that Trump's newest chief of staff,  Mick Mulvaney, has decided to give Trump free rein to be himself. It provides more opportunities for him to show what a moron he is (does he even know what "stollen" is?). Unfortunately, Trump followers are as moronic as he is and applaud every appalling move. The country they love is far more fascistic than the country I love.

The good news on my personal horizon is that my husband finished his IMRT and his last blood test showed indiscernible psa levels. Never any  guarantees in life but we are breathing a little more easily now.