January 18

 Overcast today with possible snow--not much I hope. I am so tired of the snow and it hasn't rally been a bad winter as far as cold and snow goes. Today and tomorrow are supposed to be very cold. I am recovering--slowly--from that fall I had on Friday. My ribs still hurt and I haven't slept well. So we'll see what kind of attention I can muster. Right now I am very tired and irritable.

I noticed that Trump has chosen to wield his favorite weapons over the last few days: tariffs in the Greenland controversy, and criminal investigations and legal maneuvers in Minnesota. 

He put the "insurrection act" threat for Minneapolis in favor of "investigations" against the partner of the woman ICE killed and the Governor of the state and mayor of the city. None of that has gone over well but it is what the boy does and none of it has worked well for him so far. Remember the Comey and James cases. Both were dismissed and efforts to get a grand jury to indict James came back two times with "no true bill" decisions. The old saying that a good prosecutor could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich has not held up which says something really sad about the quality of either the prosecutors or the evidence--probably both.

Trump's actions over Greenland remind me of the title of the book by his niece: TOO MUCH, NEVER ENOUGH. I haven't read it but that title lays bare his grasping nature. And the fact that anyone who gives him what he says he wants always finds that he will come back with more demands. Just remember the "discussions" with the universities.

In another instance of "stolen glory" Machado gave him her Nobel Medal. She couldn't actually give him the prize as the Nobel Committee noted--that isn't transferrable and never rescinded. And she gave it in a pretty gold frame. We all know how much he likes the gaudy.

This piece by Alley Valkyrie has been simmering in the back of my mind for a few days now. Campism is the tendency to see things as simple black or white, gain or loss, us or them situations. I have seen several ads which tell us that if you support ANYTHING at all about the Palestinians, which are equated to Hamas, you are supporting the rape, murder, abuse of Israelis. I have the habit of muting those when they show up. I don't equate Hamas and Palestinians. I don't equate Israel or Israelis with Jews. When it comes to Hamas and Israel I say a pox on both their houses. There is another old saying: two wrongs don't make a right. And there have been more wrongs on each side than I can count bit damned few rights.

A stray thought on Trump and Greenland: most pundits are hyperventilating about the damage Trump's moves might do to Nato. However, what makes them think that matters at all to our would be dictator? He has take the U.S. out of the World Health Organization, destroyed U.S.AID, abandoned the Paris Accord (for the second time), rescinded U.S. membership in 60+ international organizations (many associated with the U.N. He has been very lukewarm, if not downright chilly, about NATO so if his actions in Greenland ruptures NATO I think he would see it as an added benefit.