So, It Begins...

 Yesterday, I avoided any kind of news at any cost. I turned off notifications on my phone, checked my email sparingly, watched only DVDs and was able to avoid any reports about what was currently going on in Washington D. C.

On that day, a man convicted of a felony, a man who was indicted for three others, a man who was found guilty of sexual assault, a man who incited an insurrection against the government of the United States of America took the oath of the office of President of the United States.

Of course, I’m referring to Donald Trump. I am filled with dread about all of the terrible things he and his cohorts will enact. Already, in slightly over one day, he has done the following (among others):

Pardoning January 6 Rioters: Trump pardoned about 1,500 individuals charged in the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

National Border Emergency: Declared a national border emergency and ordered the U.S. armed forces to repel illegal migration and drug trafficking at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Rescinding Biden’s Executive Orders: Rescinded 78 executive orders approved by Joe Biden, including efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions and protect federal lands from oil drilling.

Halting TikTok Ban: Halted the enforcement of a ban on TikTok in the U.S. for 75 days.

Renaming Gulf of Mexico: Officially renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”.

Federal employees required to return to work in-person

Executive order aims to end birthright citizenship

rump ended an Environmental Protection Agency rule that required auto manufacturers to cut greenhouse gas emissions by half in new light- and medium-duty vehicles beginning in 2027.

Alaska’s Mount Denali back to Mount McKinley, reversing the name change by President Obama

Rescinded the Biden administration orders that put many of the DEI apparatus in place.

Executive order that begins the process of withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement

He also announced that the US will be withdrawing from the World Health Organization (WHO)

Reality Check

 Today the congress of the United States of America met in joint session to certify the results of the 2024 presidential election. This was accomplished without incident and is a routine occurrence after a presidential election. There was nothing extraordinary about it.

This went off without a hitch because the losing candidate, the current Vice President, acknowledged and accepted the results of the election. She did her sworn duty, as all vice presidents have previously done.

There is nothing notable about the event but it contrasts sharply with the same event exactly 4 years ago today. Then, the loser of the election, the then President, refused to accept the results and encouraged his followers to protest the outcome of the election. Many of them then violently broke into the capitol and proceeded to disrupt the proceedings. Several of them threatened the individual members of Congress, destroyed public property and injured, and even killed some of the police personnel who were there. Thankfully, the Congress was eventually able to reconvene and the then Vice-President did carry out his sworn duty and the election was duly certified.

The losing candidate continued did nothing, for several hours to stop his supporters and stop the violence. For the next 3 weeks (and beyond), he continued to not accept reality and insisted that he had, indeed won the election, but it was rigged. Later, when the new President was inaugurated, he refused to attend the ceremony as other presidents had.

What I have just stated is factual. This is reality. If you disagree with these facts, then I ask you to do us both a favor. Please unfriend me and have no further contact with me. I don’t hate you, but I have no desire to waste your time or my time. If you disagree what I’ve said, there can no good outcome of our further contact with one another.

Thank you for reading this. I wish you all well.

Emotional Rollercoaster

 During the last three days, I like many, many others I have been experiencing a lot of varied and conflicting emotions. Among them are hope, disbelief, disappointment, sadness, anger, fear, trepidation and terror as well as many others that are negative.

Earlier this morning, I was experiencing hopelessness. I couldn’t go back to sleep so I got up and tinkered with a small personal project. I made some headway with that and began to feel a little better as I assured myself that I still had some autonomy over myself. I was able to return to my bed and was eventually able to fall asleep again.

Upon waking, I began to recognize an emotion that I hadn’t experience in a while. I felt determined. I decided that I don’t have to be a victim of the current circumstances. I therefore resolved to seek out opportunities to try to lessen or mitigate some of the challenges will inevitably come up in the next 4 years. I have no illusions of being able to solve anything, but my actions might make a positive difference to someone. As of now, I intend to keep fighting the good fight.

Long term, I don’t know what I will feel like next year, next month, next week, tomorrow or even 60 seconds from now. I hope that I can remember what I’m currently feeling and return to it as many times as I need to.

I’m going to try to take care of myself, my family, my loved ones, my life partner and anyone who comes to me and needs some help or encouragement. I hope that I have what is necessary to give at those times.

In the meantime, I am wishing that all who read this are able to take care of themselves, their love ones and people who need comfort.

So, I plead with you all to take care of yourselves, and each other. These people are all we have.

Peace.

Independence Day No More

 Today is July 4, 2024. Today we commemorate the 248th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence from England. Normally, I would enjoy waking up to listen to NPR and their annual reading of that document. It always makes me proud that we live in a country where the people, through elected representatives, make the laws and run the country, rather than have a sole monarch that makes all of the decisions.

In light of the most recent ruling of the Supreme Court, I am not going to listen to that reading this morning. I fear it would seem hollow to me and might bring me to tears. This country is not the same one in which we lived a mere 4 days ago.

One of the greatest ideas, on which this nation was founded, was that no one was above the law. It was comforting to believe that even the highest official, the President, was subject to all of the same laws that we were. That all changed on Monday.

Now we know that's no longer true. Now the President can do almost anything with impunity. This changes the relationship between the top executive and the American people. I'm sad and fearful that future commemorations of Independence Day will be more of a nostalgic event, rather than the bright, aspirational event it has been up until now.

I don't want to lose democracy. If we do, we will suffer and the whole world will suffer with us. At this moment, hope is much needed. At the moment, I feel it to be quite scarce.

I Support President Biden

 I support President Joe Biden for re-election for President of the United States of America.

Below, I lay out some of my reasons for doing so. Please note, that I'm not bashing any other candidates . If you decide to comment, I simply ask you to be respectful and thoughtful, even if you disagree with me. Let's all be civil with one another.

RULE OF LAW

Joe Biden absolutely respects the concept of the rule of law.  From what we can see, he has almost no contact with the head of Law Enforcement, Attorney General Merrick Garland. Furthermore, after his son, Hunter, was recently convicted of lying on a mandatory gun-purchase form by saying he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs. The elder Biden has stated, that while he will still love and support his son, he accepts the decision of the jury and will not consider pardoning his son.

COMPASSION

He shows respect for all people. When he disagrees with people or points out bad behavior, he doesn't resort to personal attacks or calling them names. President Biden understands personal loss. In 1972, he lost his wife and daughter in a car accident. His two young sons were also in the car. They survived. In a flash, he became a single father.

After a young boy wrote President Biden asking him how he overcame his stutter, the President visited with him and shared with him the pain he, himself felt and gave the boy encouragement.

RESPECT FOR DEMOCRACY

Joe Biden believes in the constitution and the concept of democracy for all Americans. At no time has he called for it to be suspended or subverted in any way. He believes that the Constitution lays the groundwork for our society and should be used as the ultimate guide for our system of government.

PROTECTOR OF RIGHTS

Joe is on the side of people who have been discriminated against because of race, gender identity, sexual orientation, race and any other criteria that separates us. He also respects the right of people to make healthcare decisions for themselves. He supports a woman's right to choose what happens to her own body and make her own choices about her own family.

EXPERIENCE

Joe has been a senator, vice president and now president. He has worked with others, in the government and private sector for the benefit of all Americans. As vice-president and president, he has also worked with foreign leaders for the benefit of all Americans. He is well-respected by the majority of leaders in the world.

NO DRAMA

President Biden is a calm and steady leader. He does not engage in theatrical or histrionics in his dealings with others He has been a calm and steady leader throughout his whole political career.

SURROUNDS HIMSELF WITH GOOD PEOPLE

Jo Biden surrounds himself with good, competent people who, like him, have the interests of the people of America. He makes every effort to surround himself with qualified, thoughtful people who have a similar commitment to the welfare of Americans. He makes sure that those people are capable of making good decisions. We can rest assured that no matter what may occur, we are in good hands.

CHARACTER AND DECENCY

Joe Biden is a good and decent man. His Catholic faith guides him morality. He is respected by people who know him well. One of his long-time former Republican colleagues, in the Senate, is quoted as saying that he is "as good a man as God ever created".

BELIEVES IN OBJECTIVE SCIENCE

President Biden respects the role of science in the daily lives of people. He understands that scientists don't just proclaim something for no reason. He understands how the scientific process works. They theorize about why things happened the way they do in the world. Then, they conduct careful tests to validate or disprove their hypotheses. Only those theories that survive to scrutiny of testing and review by scientific peers is accepted as the most likely explanation.

Joe Biden respects the findings of science and considers that information in any decision he may need to make as President. Those people he has in his administration, likewise respect science.

SUMMARY

All-in-all, I believe is the best choice to continue to lead our country.  He's thoughtful, intelligent, experienced, compassionate, serious and steady. I think he respects all people, even those with whom he disagrees. I believe he best represents the ideals of Americans who love this country and believe in the foundation laid out to us by the founders of this great country.

Is this what they want? Really?

Supreme Court Judge John Paul Stevens announced today that he is retiring. President Obama stated that he wants to replace Judge Stevens with someone who has "an independent mind, a record of excellence and integrity, a fierce dedication to the rule of law and a keen understanding of how the law affects the daily lives of the American people. It will also be someone who, like Justice Stevens, knows that in democracy powerful interests must not be allowed to drown out the voices of ordinary citizens."

Some Conservatives have already vowed that they will oppose whoever he picks. Evidently they want someone who does not have an independent mind and will just do what he's told. A record of excellence is irrelevant to them. Integrity, to them has no place in the judiciary. They also have been fighting the idea of the rule of law for the last 10 years at least. Some Conservative also don't seem to be concerned how the law affects the daily lives of the American people. Perhaps they are only concerned with how it affects the well-to-do. They seem to want it to be someone who believes that powerful interests must be allowed to drown out the voices of ordinary citizens.

I'm not a scholar or anything, but this doesn't sound like what I was taught in civics class in high school.

Recover Photos from Formatted Camera Cards

A friend of mine called me today because he accidentally formatted a camera card on which he had already stored about 300 pictures. He has since taken some new pictures and stored some them to it, so I think the chances of him recovering the other photos is significantly less now. However, I did find a program at http://www.pandorarecovery.com/ that looks like it will be able to recover a good number of his files.

To test it, I took a card that I had previously deleted the pictures from. I took a couple of new pictures, then reformatted the card. I then ran this software and was able to not only recover the pictures I had just taken, but I could recover some of the pictures I had previously deleted!

It looks like he'll be able to get back a lot of his pictures. However the new pictures he took, are probably saved in the same space that some of his old pictures used to be in, so he probably won't be able to get some of them back. It looks pretty good though!

I thought I'd share this because this has probably happened to you before or will happen at some time.