Someone asked why the Republican
legislators stay with Trump in spite of
the fact that, in private, many say (or

did say, when it was more advantage-
ous to be honest) that the Occupant
is despicable and the answer is that

they love the sixty-million cult follow-
ers of the Occupant and look to them
to secure for posterity the future of our

democracy. Kidding. Those legislators,
sworn to protect the Constitution of
the United States, just want reelection

and a lot more money — a whole lot
more money. Actually, it is all about
the money for them (and some about

just about the cushiest job to be had)
not the economy in general, as previous-
ly stated by a Democratic strategist, “It’s

the economy, stupid.” Actually, it’s about
legislators’ pocketbooks, and I’m not go-
ing to insult you by calling you stupid

because I don’t think you are even though
the Republicans look down on the sixty-
million and think they are really stupid.

Daughter Rachel and I have sent the formatted manuscript
of our third book to be edited before publication. The book
is titled Comedy and Tragedy And What’s In Between and
features original watercolors by Rachel and photos of wife
Chris’ mixed-media sculptures to go along with my poetry.
The book has a January 1 date for publication and will be
available from Amazon Books and Barnes and Noble. Photos
and more info. later.

I suppose we could plead ignorance
but there is no pleading ignorance

of the law, especially the law of
nature. It has been there from the

beginning and out of our selfish-
ness we just plundered that law

for ill-gotten gain and it certainly
is ill-given because the earth is now

ill, the water is now ill, the sky is
now ill, the animal world is now ill

and we humans are ill unto death
as we continue to plunder the earth

ill-gottenly and ill-givenly and not
treat it at all heavenly.

I got  old
somewhere, somehow, suddenly
and if the story be told,
I thought forever I wasn’t very old
but I paid the penalty with taking risks almost deadly,
but very abruptly by Father-time, I was told,
“Be wise. Own up to your aches and pains
and don’t look sideways,
but face it straight on as a way to gain
a heads-up on life’s wiser ways.
It doesn’t mean to sit it out
and it doesn’t mean you have no clout,
but leave the big risks behind
so you don’t fall on yours. Period.”

She sat in the balcony watching
others singing her songs. She

was honored with a Kennedy
Center Honors award. As the

singers belted out “You’re No
Good,” and “I’ve Been Cheated,”

she teared and cheered and
he was taken back to a trip to

St. Thomas, Virgin Islands
and a visit to a bar late at

night in a section of town
the tourists were instructed

to avoid. Well, he made it to
the bar without incident, and

he sat watching the celebrity
love of his life — Linda — on

the big screen. He left the bar
made it back to the hotel and

when his wife asked where
he had been, he said, “Oh,

just shacking up with the
only other love of my life.”

His wife rolled over and
went back to sleep.

There has been a hand sign for a-okay
and now that hand sign has been stolen away.
and that certainly is not a-okay.

White supremacists flash it now to mean white power.
Are they hoping other ethnicities will cower
and worry that they will be devoured?

It seems the whites are the ones really scared
as evidenced by their hate being publicly aired
and so is there a way for this hateful fault-line to be repaired?

Maybe we can make an a-okay sign holding a flower
between our fingers and become vowers
to take back that sign with flower power.

Regarding the bullying of the
female, sixteen-year-old,
Swedish environmentalist
by the Occupant because
the environmentalist is Time’s
“Person of the Year” with
her picture legitimately on
the cover unlike the fake
Time cover photo of the
Occupant, which, apparently,
hangs from the walls of some
of his properties, the First
Lady’s press secretary stated
that the First Lady’s anti-bully-
ing initiative Be Best is simply
the best and that the First Lady’s
thirteen-year-old son should be
left alone and not bullied. Say
what? The professor’s comment
applied to the Occupant not the
son. It was a clever play on
words. There was nothing playful
about the Occupant’s bullying.

He had coffee with a friend this morning.
The conversation and coffee were gourmet.
The Christmas music and holiday setting were A-okay.
Time passed without a hint anything was wrong and without any warning,

but they knew in this lulled time, the precarious situation.
They honestly and earnestly shared views and fears
about issues facing our now very vulnerable nation.
They managed to laugh when they could have shed tears.

After shaking their heads about a government seemingly out of control,
they managed a nervous chuckle about Alice and the proverbial rabbit hole.

For forty years, there has been an unholy
collusion between the wealthy and our

government to stack the tax deck for the
wealthy and against the vast majority of

Americans and sell it as great capitalism
vs. evil socialism which has resulted in-

evitably in the election of a wannabe
demagogue who promises the world

to the disenfranchised who are looking
for a savior and promises more tax breaks

for the now super-rich and, and, and
that’s why all kinds of horrible things are

happening every day from the dramatic
increase in mass murders to domestic

terrorism to road rage to domestic
violence to addiction epidemics to

hate crimes, to — well, just name it
and you would be correct. And, oh,

yeah, the deterioration of a democratic
republic into totalitarian fascism or

worse, and not to be alarmist, but,
holy cow, is that even possible? Yeah.

Irony of ironies, the Democrats
are beating the Republicans at
their own game. They have wrap-
ped themselves in patriotism, co-
opted allegiance to the flag, use
of the language of faith and de-
fense of the FBI and Department
of Justice, bulwark institutions
of US conservatives. But they
are doing it for very different
reasons. Democrats used
to criticize the federal instit-
utions for surveilling those
who protested legitimately
against a government acting
illegally and now they are up-
holding the institutions who
are trying to hold account-
able a government admin-
istration acting illegally
while the Republicans
(going far beyond where
any Democrats went in
previous protests) seem
to be saluting a despotic
old Communist.