I have been offline for the past few days because I have been somewhat computer challenged. I have a very bad habit of leaving my laptop, which is essentially my desktop computer, on all of the time. That is a bad habit which I will now work to correct. Leaving the laptop on all of the time, results in the lithium battery getting ‘overcharged’ to the point that it starts to expand which causes the case of the laptop to open up. There is, I suppose, I danger of the battery actually catching fire at some point. I will now be shutting my laptop off at the end of everyday.
To add to the chaos, my hot water heater went out yesterday. Given the huge building boom in the Gallatin Valley, trying to get contractors is challenging. The first plumber I called said they could get to me in three weeks!! No hot water for three weeks – no thank you. I finally got someone who will be here tomorrow. We’ll see.
In the ‘old days’, I would just go get a new water heater and install it myself. However, my current water heater is under the house, so it will take some manhandling to get the new unit into place and the old unit out. Given that, plus the knee surgery earlier this year, I am not very inclined to undertake this project myself. I will have to pay someone else to do the suffering. Hopefully, I will have hot water soon!
However, even with all of my problems, I think they pale in comparison to the recent FBI raid on Trump’s home at Mar a Lago in Florida. One has to assume that, given the unprecedented nature of this raid that had to be approved by a Federal judge and at the highest levels of the FBI, there is something more here than just a mishandling of classified documents. It is a crime to not turn over ALL presidential records to the National Archives and to improperly remove classified material. However, given the size and nature of the FBI raid, I have to believe that the FBI and the Federal judge that approved it have enough evidence to believe that there are other and far more egregious crimes that have been potentially committed.
I have my own thoughts about what those crimes might be but I will keep those thoughts to myself for the time being. I will say, however, if my speculation is correct, Donald J. Trump is in a LOT of trouble. We’ll see how it plays out.
What amazes me more than anything else is the number of Republican politicians and members of the public who continue to support this man in spite of a long, documented history of lying, being impeached twice, and who is under investigation for multiple crimes in multiples jurisdictions. What the hell is wrong with these people? Surely, there are other Republican politicians who are orders of magnitude ‘cleaner’ than Trump who could carry the party banner and yet people continue to support Trump. It just boggles my mind.
While Trump keeps grabbing headlines for all of the wrong reasons, Biden continues to rack up more victories, passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, being the most recent. This is the largest bill to attack climate change in American history and, in addition, it has provisions to try to reduce the costs of drugs for Americans and raise the taxes on corporations that get away with paying very little tax.
Republicans were universally against it and it passed because of the tie breaking vote cast by Vice President, Kamala Harris. I heard a clip of Mitch McConnell (and other Republicans) railing against this bill saying that the Democratic party was way out of touch with what Americans want and that this ‘tax and spend’ bill would not help reduce inflation.
This from the same party who are passing laws right and left to restrict abortion in spite of the fact that the majority of Americans did not want Roe v. Wade overturned. This from the same party that passed the Trump tax cuts that primarily benefited corporations and the wealthy and resulted in a huge increase in the national debt. This from the party that has universally blocked every effort to address climate change in spite of the extreme weather events that have been ravaging the country for the last few years. This from the party that routinely blocks almost all sensible control legislation in spite of the fact that the majority of Americans are in favor of reasonable gun control laws. This from the party who constantly screams ‘law and order’ and yet continues to support Trump, who has a long history of flaunting and breaking laws in this country.
Out of touch? Who the hell is out of touch?