If lucky, you grow old. You become an extra, someone in the background of life's movie. That's fine.
Don't look at the camera.
Maybe you walk somewhere, part of a crowd scene, filling in, helping create a visible audience for your granddaughter, who stands on stage holding a mic. She sees you, calls out, "I love you." You now have a small speaking role. You call back.
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Charles M. Blow wrote the following on DeSantis.
"He smiles the way a Doberman bares its teeth: it feels forced, aggressive and dangerous. You feel you should retreat from it. And when he's not forcing a smile, he reflexively scowls. He has a resting wince face."
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Former President PO1135809 ( his official number in the Fulton Co. jail) has released his mug shot. He looks like a flamingo who's just downed a tumbler of rat urine. Among American presidents he now ranks about 1,135,809th.
On Sunday Susan and I drove to the Log Cabin veterans' bar in San Anselmo, where our 17-year-old granddaughter, Daisy Meritt, sang for two magical hours. Her father, Mark Meritt, produced, played guitar and accompanied her in covers from Taylor Swift to Merle Haggard to Peggy Lee. (A version of "I'll Be Seeing You" was added for World War II vets and me.) Not to speak of Aretha and the Everly Brothers. Or the duet Daisy sang with her friend Rachel.
Between 30 to 40 people showed up, people from three or four schools, performances, jobs, etc. Democrats and Republicans mingled. A remarkable group.
Agent Orange, once America's leader, has been denouncing vote riggers. He loves the word "rigger," because it rhymes with more powerful words like "trigger." That excites his racist base.
Back when my family was in the oil business as manual laborers, my father and grandfather rigged oil derricks and so on. On days off, they built their own homes, rigging roof beams with pulleys and chains and hoisting them up in the air. But that was hard to do. Orange, riding from hole to hole in his golf cart, has never done anything hard.
I heard a Russian say recently (bitterly) that America is an island. By that he meant that no one is going to invade the United States, protected by two oceans. America--unlike Russia--does not have to conquer its nearby neighbors to feel safe. (?)
Russian has been invaded from the east and west in the past, including once by the United States. The Golden Horde conquered Russia and the Crimean Tatars burned Moscow. Actually the Russians themselves were invaders from Scandinavia about 900 years ago. None of which justifies Putin's current murder of Ukrainians. Many in Russian understand that, but they have no say in the matter.
At some point the GOP discovered that it had nothing to offer ordinary voters. To hide that fact, it turned to scapegoating minority groups.
Karl Rove later saw that if the GOP supported the demands of every hate group, large and small, they would constitute something fairly close to a majority. But not quite.
To gain a majority, Rove's plan has devolved into attempts to make the scapegoats non-voters.
Now frantic, the GOP is scapegoating transgender children. There are few of them nationally, and they are not armed. Safe to scapegoat. But maybe not.
If you live long enough, you reach a point where you begin to fumble for words at times. I can tell you about it. You still think and talk, but you run into spots where you cannot come up with the ordinary word you need. Often your wife or brother can supply the missing term. Or you can dodge around it.
It's okay.
Watching Nancy Pelosi on TV, I concluded that she has reached that stage. She resigned as speaker of the house at the right time (unlike some).
I think of Pelosi as the best representative of the progressive San Francisco political machine built by Phil Burton and Willie Brown.
