“You cannot change what you are, only what you do.”― Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass

As most of you who read my blog know, I’ve been absent from the blogshere for sometime now. My last post was Nov. 2 just before the election. Over the past year, I had an increasingly hard time keeping up with events that seemed to flood the air waves as Donald Trump and his minions continuously changed the public narrative daily. At the time I would start writing a submission which would normally take two to three days to complete given my teaching schedule. Time after time, I would begin a blog only to find it irrelevant or outdated by the time I finished. During those last days of the Trump debacle, every day would bring a new revelation or a more scandalous event that trumped what I began to write only a few days before. I was deleting more posts to the trash can than I was posting.

While current events have slowed marginally, but with nut jobs like Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Kevin McCarthy, and yes, even Trump, not by much. My older posts ran between 1100 and 1300 words, really not that much, but to try to identify a theme and write about it was nigh unto impossible with the rapidly changing narratives that was part and parcel of Trump’s insanity. It seems futile at best and downright presumptuous of me to think I was in any way relevant. Consider what happened after Nov. 2. Trump lost the election, but refused to concede and flew into a idiotic fit of bile and rage as he and his faithful followers filed law suits, cited the Kraken, pushed Georgia election officials to the brink of distraction, and generally spread mayhem and discord among his followers. This all came to a head with the Jan. 6 insurrection when his followers goaded on by Rudy, Trump, Jr., Michael Flynn, and the great Orange One himself rallied hundreds of supporters to storm the U. S. Capitol as a certification vote was being cast for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ election as president and vice president of the nation.

Now, we have the spectacle of the Republicans eating their own as they have attempted to oust Liz Cheney from her role as the third highest ranking member of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives. As the days unfolded, half of the Republican representatives gave Marjorie Taylor Green a standing ovation for acts like denying school shootings, calling for the assassination leading Democrats in Congress, and your general nut job beliefs about 911, Jews with lasers, and so much more. I refuse to chronicle Ron Johnson (R Wis) and his off the wall made up lies and falsehoods. There are simply too many, and honestly, I don’t think he is worth the time or effort.

So, I’ve decided to change the way present my blog in light of the ever-changing news landscape. Rather than try to cover everything under the face of the sun, I am thinking of coming up with three or four categories that will repeat. I always liked the Wackodoodle of the Week category. Let’s face it; if I can make it lighter, we will all feel better. I suppose Scandal of the Week would be a good category. I would like to avoid using the word Trump ever again, but it appears he will be around for a while until he is convicted and sentenced to a long prison term. Of course, Don, Jr., Eric, Ivanka and Jared will either fall under the Wackodoodle or Scandal categories. I don’t know why I revel in the German custom of schadenfreude, but with the above mentioned yokels, how can I help myself. I will be working on coming up with a couple of more. Suggestions are welcomed.

I really want to thank everyone that has read my posts in the past. We have to stick together in this shit storm that Donald made along with the Covid disaster. More coming soon . . .